Tag: PrEP

Positive power

Positive power

hivstigmafighter

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 19th European AIDS Clinicians Society (EACS) between 18-21 october in Warsaw, Poland, on the 13th 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 17th 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.

Debating at the WAVE workshop

Sharing

On the 19th 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

Can we be brave together?

Can we be brave together?

hivstigmafighter

My lovely people, in many cities all over the world we celebrate Pride in August. Pride is an important moment for the LGBTQIA+ Community to express themselves.

Thanks to an invitation from Sensoa Belgium, I was happily part of Antwerp Pride and contribute to their campaign Is PrEP iets voor jou? (is PrEP something for you?). A key moment was the parade on the 12th of August. I found it very inspirational to join the parade and I also learned that still so many people are not aware or don’t even know about PrEP as a way to prevent someone HIV negative from getting HIV.

During Pride, Antwerp transforms into a brave space where everyone can be who they are within a respectful society. This also means having the courage to stand up and act against stigma and discrimination. Therefore, I was very proud to promote PrEP Diversity. As I pointed out, many people, especially women, with a migrant background are still overseen in stigma reduction and prevention efforts and still do not have equal access to PrEP. I am proud that I contributed to making Antwerp an even braver space by demanding PrEp diversity!

During Antwerp Pride I also celebrated many performances of local artists with so many people who truly felt safe to express themselves in this brave space. It fills me with joy to see them join Pride and be themselves because we manage to create this brave space.

Yet, let’s not forget that many cannot be who they are in their homelands. I wish a brave space would exist anywhere in the world, and not only during one week of Pride each year. A brave space should really not be an event like Christmas, where we wait the whole year to celebrate for a few days and then move on again. We should be able to express ourselves every day!

Frederick Douglass once said “If there is no struggle, there is no progress”, and we should work hard with communities, organisations and governments to promote and protect the human rights of all persons, including the LGBTQIA+ community, without stigma and discrimination.

So let us normalise brave spaces, and the easiest way is to start with yourself by creating a space in your heart to accept and respect each and everyone’s choice to be themselves every day of the year!

Can we all be Brave together?

Peace,

Eliane

Dragtivism

Dragtivism

hivstigmafighter

Hello my lovely people.

It’s always a pleasure to share with you the stories that inspired you and the World. This time we are going to talk about Drag. While a lot of you may have heard of drag and drag queens as performance arts, many of you may not yet be familiar with drag kings.

I am proudly part of a family called the House of Løst Bois, the first house of Drag KINGS in the Netherlands based in Amsterdam. With our lovely Mother Taka Taka and Father Julius. Everybody has a reason to do drag. In fact, my passion for drag has been there the whole of my life, but I just did not give it a name. When I was little, I already liked dressing up like a boy and play ‘boys games’, fishing in the Ninga river, go birds hunting or climbing trees. I am so grateful that my parents understood me and did the best to allow me who I wanted to be.

Why am I Eric TheDragKing? When I was 5 I was crying a lot telling my mother “I don’t want to be a girl!” One day my mum was tired of my cries and she said “OK, you are now a boy and your name is Eric”. From that day on I was so happy for people to call me Eric instead Eliane, allowing me to be myself as a kid.

Then, at high school I joined a theather group of drummers and dancers which is traditionally performed by men in Burundi. I was the only girl in the group. So, one day when we were on the stage performing, the MC publicly announced that between the boys performing there was also a girl between them! And I was dressed up, had a great haircut and dancing so well that the audience was not able to spot me amongst the boys! For me what really mattered was to be myself and show that a girl is as talented as a man if they are given a chance!

So, now I am Eric TheDragKing, the king who lives with HIV. As I have experienced and seen many times what stigma does, I dance HIV and AIDS stigma away to inspire and empower whoever living with HIV and not open about it. Living healthy and embrace who we are is much stronger than the tiny virus. To perform drag is another powerful way for me to fight stigma and discrimination, and bring change to people and communities.

This month I was part of an event called Becoming: Drag, organized at Likeminds in collaboration with the House of Hopelezz and the House of Løst Bois . If you suffer from queerphobia, this was not right place to be. The queer world is where everyone feels at home. We felt a big sense of community connecting to the audience via our performances. It was a very inspiring evening where the audience was also part of the performance, dressed up in glitter, colourful hair and beautiful dresses. It was all fabulous! Please have a look at the pictures made by Kiriacademy.

I loved the talk show between our Mother Taka Taka, Father Julius and Mother Jennifer Hopelezz about drag values and how drag can be used as activism in many ways, for example as a form of protest or for prevention, for example on PrEP. Hence the word Dragtivism!

Yes, Eric TheDragKing is a Dragtivist! To dance HIV and AIDS stigma away as a drag king is another powerful way to communicate with people facing HIV stigma and discrimination. I know in many communities we have people living with HIV going through a lot and still trying to deal with this alone, so if I am able to reach an even a wider community, through my drag art, this would be a great result toward reaching a HIV stigma free world!

I am proud to be the first Dragking open about my HIV status in the Netherlands, in Burundi and the whole of Africa. I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of the drag community and that a performance such as Becoming: Drag provides me with a platfom to fight stigma and discrimination.

In the end what brings us together is connectedness through drag as art. To perform our art for you to enjoy we feel stronger together as one big family. I truly believe the beautiful art of drag is a way to express ourselves, to share our passion, and to come togeher as a community. What an incredible evening!

Peace,

Eliane

Meet the performers from the House of Hopelezz and the House of Lost Bois
PrEP diversity

PrEP diversity

hivstigmafighter

My lovely people, today I want to share my opinion on PrEP( Pre Exposure Prophylaxis). I know that PrEP is a pill that prevents a person from getting HIV infection. PrEP is scientificaly proven to be effective for women.

How are we doing in the Netherlands when it comes to PrEP? Are we being inclusive? Recently I wrote something on instagram about PrEP for women, and after that a woman with a migrant background appoached me and said ”I am not a sexworker, but I like to enjoy having sex with men but I am afraid of getting HIV because we don’t always use condoms. I was denied PrEP and the medical person told me that I don’t fit the criteria of the risk group“.

Since when the HIV virus has criteria? It seems to me that the HIV virus wins all the trophies when it comes to diversity! HIV does not care about gender, sexual orientation or ethnic background. So if PrEP is designed to prevent against HIV, then women should have equitable access to PrEP. Women have a right to protect themselves against HIV just like others that are now able to access PrEP right now!

How can we  dream of ending HIV and AIDS with proven solutions by 2030 when women, especially those with a migrant background, are still ignored in Prevention programs? Should we not focus on making good our promises to end HIV/ AIDS by 2030 and urgently include women in PrEP programmes right now?!

Migrants, thanks to Aidsmap I recently read an insightful article on why migrant women of African origin are not being targeted by health professionals in PreP programmes whilst they represent over a third of new HIV diagnoses in Belgium in 2020. Cultural differences? Lack of knowledge? Not being ready?

How can health professionals use such discriminatory language? If you generalize a problem and consider cultural diversity an obstacle instead of embracing it, then there is no way we will get rid of HIV and AIDS by 2030!

We must acknowledge that PrEP for all is a powerful pathway towards an HIV and AIDS free World. Instead of sticking our heads in the sand pretending that getting to zero new HIV infections is possible whilst still excluding people with a migrant background, let us bring proven solutions such as PreP to the people that need it most!

Celebrating diversity and ensuring access to PrEP for migrant communities belong together. In a world where our migrant community is growing, with every day new arrivals from many parts of Africa and Asia and places such as Ukraine, we must make a priority to include them in HIV prevention.

Please listen to the needs of migrant women and make sure to prioritize them, so they will be part of the winning team in our fight to end HIV and AIDS.

Change must start Now, PrEP for Women Now!

Peace ,

Eliane