BAWA – HIV stigmafighter

Through their eyes: Young women shaping their future

30 January 2026hivstigmafighter

My lovely people, I hope you have all been well. As many of you know, I spent the last three months of 2025 in Burundi, sharing precious time with my family and reconnecting with the communities that shaped me. One of the most meaningful moments of my stay was spending time with my sisters from BAWA (Burundian Association for Women in Action), a grassroots organisation I introduced to you in an earlier blog.

BAWA is a collective of vulnerable women, and among them are young women who urgently need practical skills to build independence and a brighter future. In Burundi, photography is not just a hobby, it is a real profession. With the right skills, a young woman can earn an income, support her family, and take control of her life. That is why HIV Stigmafighter chose to invest in strengthening their capacity in photography, design, and video editing. We believe in the potential of the women behind BAWA!

Creating memories on the streets of Bujumbura

Burundi is full of moments that require a photographer: weddings, birthdays, funerals, school graduations, church gatherings, community celebrations. There is always someone who needs a camera. I had the privilege of joining the women of BAWA during one of their street‑photography sessions. It was incredibly hot, but watching them enjoy that day and grow in confidence and creativity touched me deeply and made every moment unforgettable.

When I see these young BAWA women behind their cameras, I see more than learners. I see emerging storytellers, future professionals, and young leaders. These new skills are opening their eyes to new possibilities, serving as a pathway to dignity, income, and self‑determination. And as you can read from their stories, they are already putting their skills to use: documenting their journey as a grassroots organisation, capturing and sharing local events, and seeing opportunities to earn small incomes to help them shape their own futures.

Here are some impressions of the capacity strengthening event and the beautiful pictures captured by our 5 young talents:

I am so proud that HIV Stigmafighter helped make this possible. By offering resources, encouragement, and unwavering belief in their strength, we opened a door. And these young women are walking through it with strength and pride.

Thank you BAWA, and a very special thank you to our five talents: Aisha, Jessica, Jeanne d’Arc, Lyse Bella, and Esperance

Peace,

Eliane

United through art: Celebrating Gihanga’s 6th talent show

30 November 2025hivstigmafighter

My lovely people, how are you? It has been a while, but I have not forgotten any of you. Many of you remember where I spent World AIDS Day last year and the excitement I felt watching the young talents of Gihanga during the 5th edition of the Gihanga Talent Show. This year, for the 6th edition, I rejoiced in being back in Burundi and joining Inyambo Stars to organise this event. It took place on Saturday, 29 November, during the same week as my 49th birthday.

In celebration of World AIDS Day 2025 in the Gihanga community, we continue our mission of reducing stigma. We organised the 6th edition of the Gihanga Talent Show under the theme “Let’s stand together against HIV stigma.” This event remains one of the best opportunities to educate young people and raise awareness about HIV and AIDS.

As always, at Inyambo Stars and HIV Stigmafighter, we give space to any young talent who wants to share their arts to help break stigma. We have such a diversity of young people from all communities in Gihanga, including youth from the Batwa (pygmee) community and people with albinism. It is a positive step that encourages the community to recognise their talents and embrace them fully. We stand together against stigma.

Mr. Shaddy, also known as Shadrack Nahumuremyi, opened the competition with a beautiful reggae‑style song. The local authorities were represented by the Communal Counseller of Gihanga Zone. They delivered a powerful speech encouraging the young talents of Gihanga to continue their amazing work by raising HIV awareness and educating both youth and adults through their artistic expressions.

This year’s show included singing, traditional and modern dance, comedy/sketches, and catwalk. I am proud to see so many young talents in Gihanga. The winners made me proud. As a member of the jury, it was difficult to choose the first place in each category because so many participants delivered beautiful and powerful messages.

I hope that in the next edition we will receive more support so we can offer prizes for second and third place instead of first prize only. I had dreamed of including an HIV testing team at the event, but I learned that in Burundi testing is no longer done at events as people must go to designated testing locations.

Still, I am very proud of the progress in our community. Every year, I see a change in attitudes toward people living with HIV in Gihanga. Since the beginning of this event in 2020, the goal has been to normalise HIV. Seeing a young person confidently wearing a T‑shirt that says “People living with HIV are like us, don’t stigmatize them” or watching a sketch explaining that “Women who take HIV medication during pregnancy are protecting their unborn babies” shows how impactful the Gihanga Talent Show has become.

I had the opportunity to share my story and remind people living with HIV that taking medication and staying healthy is essential. Looking after ourselves, accepting our diagnosis, and living beyond it is what matters. I reminded everyone why we must end HIV stigma, because stigma is now the biggest killer. It is the reason people fear testing, the reason some believe HIV is gone. Silence keeps stigma alive. If we do not speak out, fight back, and educate others, we will spend another 40 years facing the same challenges we faced 40 years ago. We have the tools, and the Gihanga Talent Show is one of them. Let us continue, we are moving in the right direction!

We would like to thank our local authorities for supporting us and allowing this event to continue for the past six years. We thank all jury members – Enos Pro, Pisco, Landy, and Eliane – for your hard work.

Congratulations to the winners:

Singing: Stide
Modern Dance: Gwezo – Team A
Modern Dance: Inyambo Stars Abasangwabutaka
Sketch: Cabiza TV
Catwalk: Kenthia

Here you can enjoy a few more pictures of the talent show:

We thank all participants who shared their talent. Your contribution to combating HIV stigma is valuable to the Gihanga community, to Burundi, and to the world. As the Burundian proverb says, “Haburana babiri hagatsinda umwe”- in a competition, only one can win. Keep sharing your talents to fight HIV stigma, maybe next time you will be the one.

Thank you to our amazing MC Machad de la Capital, to Irene Kundubumwe from Inyambo Stars, to Remegie and Yves Don Darcy for coordinating logistics, and to BAWA for providing a person living with HIV to share their testimony.

To all the amazing young artists of Gihanga: you are an inspiration. Let us continue this great work with positive energy and hope to end HIV. This is how we transform the HIV response.

Peace,

Eliane

Invest in women

1 March 202410 February 2025hivstigmafighter

My lovely people how have you been? I was visiting my beloved country in January and part of February this year. While visiting many places and interacting with many people, I realized the incredibly important place that women have in Burundian society.

We contribute so much to society; Early morning, even before breakfast time, women can already be found on the lands as farmers and when they are finished they will be making breakfast for their family. Just imagine, while for many of us the day hasn’t even started, many women in Burundi have already worked for three hours or more!

Walking the streets and markets of Burundi you will notice that most street sellers or market stall owners are women. They work hard to sell fruits, vegetables, fish, clothes, etc. They sell hair extensions on the streets and apply them to customers. While working, they will often take care of their kids, holding them on their backs or allowing them to play on the street.

Meet Jeanine, a cheerful woman of Gihanga, selling porridge on the street. While enjoying her porridge I had an opportunity to chat with her, so I asked why she sells porridge at the end of the day instead of the morning when most of us eat our porridge. She replied that during daytime she is working on the fields as a farmer. Then, at the end of the day she makes time to sell her porridge to people who cannot afford to eat in a restaurant.

Renata is another great example of how a women contribute to a healthy society. In my hometown Gihanga access to clean water has been a problem for ages, even when I was young! Many women and girls walk or cycle for over 8 kilometres to fetch clean water for their family to drink. So, Renata was just starting her cycling journey, taking 6 containers of 20 litres each with her, while also taking her baby on her back. It does not matter how far or whether it is a hot or rainy day, this is what she must do to keep her family healthy.

And if you think that Jeanine and Renata can wind down after a hard day of work, do not forget they will also be cooking meals for their family or selling a few small things in front of their doorsteps in the evening. They are real centipedes (maboko igihumbi in my language). Women like Jeanine and Renata understand the important role of women in Burundian society. They know their contribution to maintain a healthy and resilient family is essential.

With International women’s Day around the corner, another shining star woman that I want to praise for her courage and dedication to fight for the rights of vulnerable women in Burundi is Evangeline Ngendakumana, the Executive Director of BAWA (Burundian Association for Women in Action). You can read more about the great work of BAWA, including on health & HIV prevention, in my previous blog. Always working hard to support so many vulnerable women and forge their equality in Burundi, she and her team are a truly great example of why we should accelerate investing in women like Evangeline and grassroots organisations working on women’s health & HIV prevention like BAWA.

Lastly, as a Burundian woman myself, I hope I am also proudly contributing to empowering Burundian women and forging equality through my drag art as Eric the Dragking. Burundian women have many talents and we don’t need to stick to those men determine us to do. 23 years ago when I played the indonongo, a traditional instrument, as the first woman ever, I was told that it was only meant to be played by men. Today it has become normal for women to play the indonongo. We can do many things, the world is out there, let us discover it.

To those Burundians women who try to make a difference in our country and work hard for their families and contribute to Burundi’s economy, I salute you!

If you want to see some more women of Burundi contributing to a healthy society scroll down below for a slideshow…

Peace,

The proud Burundian,

Eliane

Put women first!

26 January 202410 February 2025hivstigmafighter

My lovely people,

The talk of ending HIV and AIDS has been going for ages, are we really going to end HIV and AIDS by 2030? To answer this question, we must ask ourselves what actions do we take in our HIV community to put people first? And more importantly, are we making sure to put women in charge?

There is always this inequality. We point it out, we are all aware of it, but concrete actions are hardly noticed. It seems that women are always the last to be thought about while their vulnerability around HIV is so visible. Yet, often we remain silent, indifferent. When will women be saved from this suffering of inequality? When will they not only be spoken about but also put in charge of addressing their challenges related to HIV and AIDS?

This January I am in my home country, Burundi, and my heart is broken when I talk to women in the communities. For example when I talk to a mother with child abandoned by the father, homeless women with children, or young girls begging on the street. Many of these women have no means or support network to take care of themselves and their children.

Some women resort to becoming a sex worker. This is not without danger, many of them are still sleeping on the streets and through their profession or whilst living on the streets there is a high chance of them being raped. Some told me that happens at least 3 times per week!

The rights of these women are being violated and need to be supported. No wonder it makes me angry when we shamelessly announce we want to end HIV and AIDS in 2030 while basic rights and needs of these women are not even met yet, or when there is no plan of making PrEP available as a preventive strategy to help these women to protect themselves from HIV. Where are our HIV allies when we need them most?

This month my focus is to initiate the strengthening of community-based groups working with vulnerable women to increase their awareness about health & HIV services and PrEP as a life-saving measure for HIV prevention and stigma reduction.

To make a lasting impact we must work directly with local actors, so I have teamed up with a local organisation called BAWA (Burundian Association for Women in Action). The first thing we did was to make sure we listen. We must understand the societal challenges the women face on a daily basis. And my goodness, they are many!

Many women reported they face domestic violence, some sex workers end up with pregnancy during their work and experience problems to register their children as sometimes they are arrested and have their IDs taken, women sleep on the streets without mosquito nets and suffer from malaria and since they are not registered they cannot get mosquito nets, some are being detained by police and taken to the countryside where they live in places without services, etc. It is very shocking. All of them came to the same conclusion, we need safety and protection!

Having talked about these challenges and how they affect their lives, we moved to listening to their ideas about how to improve their situation. And it became so apparent to me that they have really great ideas about how they can create a better future for themselves. For example, many women would wish to have access to PrEP or be able to protect themselves for example through condoms.

As BAWA works together with others to address the needs of these vulnerable women, we also organised a session together with them to interact with the women of BAWA. We discussed their strategies on how women can stay healthy & safe, and how to seek help when needed. This was also a great opportunity for me to share the latest on HIV prevention and treatment. So, I shared with them a whole range of preventive measures such as the dapivirine vaginal ring , PrEP pill or injectable PrEP. This is a part of the world where I clearly see the need for injectable PrEP as this will positively impact upon the health of vulnerable women. We were also able to make female and male condoms available, and most strongly preferred female condoms because they are a better means for them to protect themselves.

As is customary in our society, to end these fruitful sessions and collaborations in the Burundian grassroots (HIV) community we shared a great lunch together!

If we do not work with organisations such as BAWA and the vulnerable women they represent directly, ending HIV and AIDS by 2030 is an illusion! So, HIV allies pay attention, let’s make 2024 the year to get the balance right and make sure we address the challenges of women in the global South in our fight against HIV and AIDS.

Peace, Eliane