positive women – HIV stigmafighter

Positive power

27 October 202310 February 2025hivstigmafighter

My lovely people,

Have you ever had a dilemma where you had to choose between what is best for you as a person or for us a HIV community? Last week I had to make such a choice. While getting ready for the 19^th European AIDS Clinicians Society (EACS) between 18-21 october in Warsaw, Poland, on the 13^th of October my sister died in Gihanga, Burundi.

So, I was torn between dealing with grief and organising the funeral of my sister and representing the HIV community. That was such a hard choice. Deep down, I knew my sister would have loved me to carry on doing what is my passion in life, representing and speaking out on behalf of the HIV community. So, with a broken heart I made my way to Warsaw to meet up with my dear HIV community and our partners.

I realised that we as a HIV community are able to contribute to fighting HIV stigma in so many different ways. Whenever we can we should be…

Speaking out

The 17^th of October was an exciting day for me to speak out as HIV stigmafighter at the Stigma and Discrimination Forum which was organised a day before EACS. It was a great moment to point out the persisting stigma in the healthcare system. Thank you Virology Education for giving the HIV community an opportunity to speak out.

Group photo of forum participants and organisers. Photo credit: Krystian Lipiec

Debating

The next day I was a penalist in the WAVE (Women against Viruses Europe) workshop “I am every woman“ where I was representing migrant women living with HIV. I believe that powerful migrant women, open about their status, are key to briding the gaps between the healthcare system and migrant women living with HIV. How else will we improve access to PrEP? Thank you WAVE, for giving migrant women a chance to share their stories and insights.

Sharing

On the 19^th I shared my HIV jounery as a motivational speaker in the ‘community corner’ organized by European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG). I am so glad to see these dedicated spaces where the HIV community can interact with our partners. These are always the most vibrant spaces of any conference!

EACS Community Corner. Photo credit: Steven Doyle

Coaching

My week in Warsaw ended on a very high note! Together with AFEW International, Positive Women and Fundacija HelpNowHub I organised a positive lunch for Ukrainian women living with HIV in Poland. This was a great moment to work together on our dreamtrees and share and discuss our futures of living with HIV. I was truly touched by the resilience of the women I met, it was a very memorable Sunday!

You may have noticed that lately I have been priviliged to engage at different events, such as Fast-Track Cities, Virology Education’s Forum on Stigma and dicrimination and EACS 2023. I am noticing a very positive trend: More and more of our partners see the HIV community as empowered citizens in our global fight against HIV. If together we keep on making sure that our voices are being heard around issues such as PrEP diversity, fighting HIV stigma, growing up positively with HIV, we can bring real change to the lives of people living with HIV.

At EACS 2023 I was able to witness the great work the HIV community continues doing. Together with our partners, we can make the transformation of their work into our HIV community. Without the HIV community there will be no science.

Keep empowering our HIV community and be inspired by us for great positive outcomes!

Thank you sister, peace in heaven,

Eliane

Golden goal

27 January 20238 March 2025hivstigmafighter

My lovely people , January is my favourite month. Not only because it is the beginning of a New year where we can start afresh, we also still have the whole year ahead to work on whatever we set our mind to.

We definitely started afresh as on the 4^th January we celebrated our 20^th Anniversary in a very special way. It became a great day full of many surprises. Remember, I was back from Burundi where I had been working really hard for 3 months on various great projects. So of course, I made sure to be back on time in the Netherlands to be with my husband on our 20^th anniversary.

He is such a romantic man, as he had planned some wonderful surprises for our special day. He took me to our favourite town, Rotterdam, where we stayed in an amazing hotel with a room with our own private jacuzzi and sauna! Then we went to a special place, a huge red heart along a canal in Rotterdam, where love couples lock in their commitment to each other. So on our wedding day (04/01/2023) we locked in our 20years and committed to staying strong for another 20 years.

And some of you may remember that it is only two years ago when I started to work hard on a Healthy New Me and that my goal was to wear my wedding dress on our 20th wedding anniversary? To accomplish this I started to walk at least 10 km every day. Well, I am so proud to share with you that I reached my goal! The dress fit me perfectly. I am calling this my Golden goal!

So, what is my next big motivation? Still this month I was invited by Positive Now and HIV Ireland to the 4^th National HIV Conference in Dublin, Ireland. The theme was “The Pillars of Wellbeing” and the first speaker was Prof. Paddy Mallon to update us on key topics related to HIV in 2023 and explain where we are and what we need to know. He explained about the HIV lifecycle and presented an update on injectable HIV medication. In the Netherlands we are a bit advanced on this topic as we already have people using this, so I could share some of the experiences from our community with the Irish HIV community. To the Irish participants he asked for more people to participate in clinical trials.

The second part of conference was focused on Wellbeing. This involved topics such as how to improve our wellbeing, how do mindfulness and meditation, how to break a bad habit and apply a new habit. My favourite exercise was the ‘domino effect’ where we learned how by starting to change something small you will be able to end up reaching your bigger target. We were also asked to write down our goals for 2023.

So after a successful 2022 where more a ‘ healthy new me’ resulted in more fitness, weight control and even less medication intake (you see, A small domino can really knock over a bigger one!), what is my golden goal for 2023 and beyond? Positive Living!

I really want to keep my healthy new me lifestyle, and also to fiercely engage on HIV activism as a performer.

I would like to thank PositiveNow and HIV Ireland and every person I managed to chat with in Ireland. Thanks to joining conferences and networks like this I am motivated to continue to be healthy and in Love for the next 20years, and by the time I will be 66 years I want my wedding dress to fit me again!

I am so excited! Isn’t this what I should call Positive Living?

Peace,

Eliane

Precious Powerwoman

8 March 20228 March 2025hivstigmafighter

Today we celebrate International women’s Day.

As women, how are we doing? How well are we in seizing power in a male-dominated World?

Maya ANGELOU once said:” My mission in life is not merely to survive but to thrive and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor and some style”.

If we want to fulfil her mission, we must continue to fight for equal rights for women every day. It is up to us to create a world…

Where we can thrive, where nothing will stop us from achieving our goals,

that protects our dignity with passion, and

where we show compassion, allowing no space for discrimination or stigmatisation.

Let us stay focused on our mission with humor and style!

For Stories of Hope we are proudly sharing the amazing story of young powerwoman Precious who turned her pain into courage to never let HIV stigma stand in her way. Please welcome Precious as a hero of hope!