THRIVE

Black Pride Amsterdam: A journey to liberation

28 August 2026hivstigmafighter

Carrying my message “PrEP saves lives”at WorldPride 2026

My lovely people, how was your summer? Mine was alive with powerful moments that inspired me deeply. One of the highlights took place in Amsterdam, the capital of the country I call home – The Netherlands – during WorldPride 2026. Fresh from AIDS 2026 in Rio, I stepped onto the Pride Boat, representing EATG aboard the EMA (European Medicines Agency) float. With pride and urgency, I carried my message of HIV prevention and stigma reduction, delivered with the fervour our community deserves.

That moment felt like an appetizer for another powerful gathering, the first ever Black Pride Festival in Amsterdam, a parallel event to WorldPride. Black Pride is more than a festival, it is a movement and a platform rooted in the experiences, histories, and futures of Black LGBTQIA+ communities in the Netherlands. We exist because our community has always created spaces of care, resistance, celebration, and imagination, often without the recognition or resources we deserve.

Through culture, conversation, education, art, nightlife, and collective organizing, Black Pride makes space for Black queer lives to be seen fully in our vulnerability, joy, creativity, spirituality, and FREEDOM.

The event, Blueprint for Liberation through Collective Power, brought together so many inspiring voices:

So many inspiring speakers at Black Pride Amsterdam

Lady Phyll, founder and CEO of Black Pride UK, reminded us why Black Pride was born in 2005: “People who were told there was no space for them. Too Black for queer spaces, too queer for Black spaces. We built our own home. Today in Amsterdam we choose joy, chosen family, and we choose to call each other home.”
Tieneke Sumter, cultural worker and queer activist for over 40 years, shared Black queer history, honouring pioneers like Tania Leon and others who fought from the beginning of the resistance movement.
Kenya Hutton, CEO of the Center for Equity in New York, declared: “Black Pride is FREEDOM.” They reminded us that Pride is not just celebration. It is resistance, advocacy, and solidarity, especially when rights are under attack. His program focuses on HIV prevention, education, and awareness.
March Bannor, trans activist and community leader, highlighted the visibility of trans men in the Netherlands. Seeing a trans man present was powerful as representation matters, and it showed that our movement includes everyone in the Black queer community.

During the talks, I raised questions about HIV prevention, awareness, and stigma in our Black and queer communities in the Netherlands. I emphasized that we cannot wait for big organizations, where people of colour are all too often underrepresented, to “save” us. HIV stigma, discrimination, and racism are deeply tied to mental health struggles. There cannot be Black joy when someone is suffering in silence. The speakers thanked me for bringing this crucial issue forward.

The festival was alive with energy: the queer market, ballroom, tarot readings, exhibitions of queer archives and HIV history in the Netherlands, DJs, MCs, and endless dancing and laughter. At the queer market, I connected with people while sharing HIV Stigmafighter pins with fellow community members.

I had a really interesting conversation at the Afrotunda queer market stand where I asked how they felt about Black Pride and I believe their answer sums up the event very well: “Being part of the first Black Pride Festival was so special and empowering. You could really feel the energy vibrating through the community, and the amazing platform given to Black queer creativity. I am super grateful that we got a chance to show up and share our work in a space filled with so much Black joy, representation, and genuine connections.”

I couldn’t agree more. This is just the beginning. One day, perhaps, we will host a World Black Pride in Amsterdam, inviting activists and artists from countries where being queer is still criminalized. That dream belongs on the dreamtree of Black Pride Amsterdam.

To my fellow community members: I am Black, I am queer, and I am living with HIV. All three truths can exist in the same body as joy. To find that joy, you must get tested, get treated, and embrace who you are.

Peace,

Eliane

Time travel – A honeymoon 23 years later

29 May 202629 May 2026hivstigmafighter

My lovely people, if you would have a chance to travel in time what would you do? First, make sure you are healthy as you can’t travel when you don’t take good care of yourself.

My story feels like time travel, which is not only about machines or science fiction. Sometimes, it is about memory, longing, and dreams that refuse to die. My journey feels like time travel, back to the moment I first missed my husband in Vietnam, and forward to the day we finally lived our honeymoon there, 23 years later.

23 years ago, 2 days before our first ‘separation’

I met my husband in Burundi during the civil war. We were young, fearless, and deeply in love. On Saturday, January 4, 2003, we married. Two days later, he left for a six months work trip to Vietnam. There was no honeymoon, only gossip and doubt from the community. People whispered that he had another wife, that our wedding meant nothing. But I trusted him. In my prayers I said: “Please God, guide him, keep him safe, and return him to me healthy.”

Communication was difficult those times. There was hardly any internet, no whatsapp or facebook. So I began to imagine Vietnam, his favourite food and restaurants, the language, the people. At school we had only learned about the Resistance War against America in the 60’s and 70’s, but I wanted to know how life continued beyond it. That dream became a leaf on my THRIVE dreamtree: Travel in time for a Vietnam honeymoon.

This month, it finally happened. Together we explored Hanoi, Da Nang, Hoi An, and finally Saigon. In Hanoi’s war museum, I felt sorrow for the destruction and admiration for the resilience and compassion of the Vietnamese people. They forgive, but they do not forget. Their kindness to foreigners is a lesson I wish many nations would learn.

The Mekong Delta, the place where my husband worked for 6 months, was our final destination. A vast labyrinth of rivers and canals, sustaining 18 million people today, just as it sheltered resistance fighters decades ago. We visited villages, markets, and farms, tasting guavas, dragonfruit, and mangoes that reminded me of my childhood in Murira, Burundi. We prayed at the Cao Dai temple which unifies many religions in the world, shared meals from fresh market produce, and glided slowly in a fisherman’s pirogue, touching the water hyacinths like a green carpet. Truly, the Mekong deserves its name: Mother River.

Nguyen Thi Kim Lai pictured by Phan Thoan

I also would like to share one story I learned about Vietnamese guerilla fighter and trained nurse Nguyen Thi Kim Lai at the Hanoi Prison Museum which touched me deeply. One day she captured a badly wounded American pilot who was hiding in the forests around Hanoi. When she saw his suffering, she instantly realised that “at that moment he was not a soldier, he was my patient, and I was his nurse.” So she tucked away her rifle and started tending to his injuries. Her compassion shows that even in war, humanity can prevail.

Vietnam taught me that dignity and forgiveness are possible even in the darkest times. Yet in today’s world, many communities – people living with HIV, sex workers, trans and queer people, people who use drugs – are still denied dignity and punished by unjust laws. Are they not human beings too? Love, respect, and access to health services are basic rights we must continue fighting for.

After 23 years, I finally lived my honeymoon in Vietnam. I did not give up on my dream. As my hero of hope Nelson Mandela said: “A winner is a dreamer who never gives up.” May his words, and Nguyen Thi Kim Lai’s compassion, inspire us all to keep dreaming, keep fighting stigma, and keep believing in peace.

Peace,

Eliane

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

A vivacious HIV community

29 September 202310 February 2025hivstigmafighter

My lovely people, these past few days I have been very proactive and this is really boosting my confidence and energy as well.

Last weekend I was invited to give a THRIVE workshop during the 4th National HIV positive Day, an initiative by Utopia_BXL, which aims to bring together the Belgian HIV community and partners in Brussels, Belgium. This was a great opportunity to share THRIVE with the HIV community as a valuable contribution to living and ageing healthily with HIV.

The THRIVE workshop was scheduled in the afternoon after a morning mostly filled with presentations and discussion about quality of life, challenges of the migrant community in Belgium, etc. Following these, THRIVE is perfect as it is engaging and fun. In a THRIVE workshop there is no time for boring powerpoints or keynote speakers. No, THRIVE is all about being lively, excited and energetic. In other words about being vivacious!

THRIVE started by exploring the dreams and aspiration of the HIV community and our allies. This was the first time ever to use the unique dreamtrees co-designed with our thrivers. And participants were really passionate about making their own dreamtrees and eager to share their pieces of art. Aren’t they lovely?

What is so good about the dreamtree is that by sharing their future, the participants get very practical hints and tips from others on small steps they could take now. And also on how to remain patient and focused on achieving their bigger dreams.

The favourite game for many participants was our brand new addition, the Tower of Trust! They really loved the feature built into the game where you can ask questions that have been bothering them and that they would never even ask to their own family, friends, or doctor…

This was their chance to pose them by hiding them in the Tower of Trust. So, with all these questions hidden in the Tower, no one will know who posed it.

Then, when any question is drawn, we would discuss together without any judgement. Participants really loved this game because they have so much freedom to express themselves anonymously and then have lively discussions about issues that are bothering the HIV community. Many wished we would have more time to play it!

Example of a tower of trust question: “Why am I the only person in my entire family living with HIV?”

The final three steps (Spark, Grow and THRIVE) we celebrated being part of the HIV community. I ‘sparked’ the party with a poem called ‘It is my time to fight HIV stigma’. And yes, it was my debut to cite it in French! We then learned taking some baby steps towards living positively, Africa style, and finished the workshop with a positive dance, energized by some sweeping Africans songs.

What a workshop! I understood it was very much appreciated by the participants and some requested if we could do it again in future. It gave me immense joy to see that my vision to live and age healthily with HIV can be put into action by the HIV community itself.

I am so proud that THRIVE can be a part of creating a vivacious HIV community!

Peace,

Eliane

28 July 202318 August 2023hivstigmafighter

Hello my lovely people. Some of us are always counting their age, forgetting to do the things that make them happy. Remember, there is no such thing as putting your life on hold, because we are all ageing, every day!

This may sound weird, but I am always looking forward to ageing. When you cherish your dreams and love your life, ageing should not be your problem. As long as you are happy with yourself! Look at Eric the dragking, never giving a damn about age at all. Who knew I would be the first Dragking to be open about thriving with HIV?

Of course, for many of us living with HIV, it is quite a journey to get to this comfortable place that we all need to live and age healthily. Knowing first-hand how difficult it is and how many barriers we need to break, I have always been very committed as an activist member of the HIV community to share my personal experiences to change my lifestyle to improve my health-related quality of life.

Yes, there are many discussions and workshops on this topic, but how many of us really work together with people living and ageing with HIV instead of for them? So being always full of ideas as an HIV activist and entrepreneur, you may remember that last year I gave a performance called five ways to THRIVE. Well, sending the message through a performance or workshop is not enough!

What if we ask the HIV community directly to share their dreams, what they do to regain trust, and to share their journeys towards staying healthy while ageing with HIV?

Today I would like to share with you that we have indeed started to engage the HIV community to co-design community tools to express our challenges, and share our dreams and ideas to age healthily!

I am so blessed to get a lot of support from friends in the worldwide HIV community to think along, THRIVE is very much alive!

Through THRIVE we, as creative members of the HIV community, want to keep developing useful concepts and share our experiences. But we cannot do this alone and we will need support from our HIV allies to work with us to THRIVE while ageing healthily with HIV.

So, are you curious how you can engage with us? Get in touch and let’s THRIVE together!

Peace,

Eliane