Obrian Nyamucherera - a friendly rectal microbicide advocate

Obrian Nyamucherera
Harare, Zimbabwe

Obrian is an IRMA advocate from Harare, Zimbabwe where he serves as the national coordinator of Partners Zimbabwe, a partnership of six Zimbabwean HIV/AIDS organizations. These organisations have come together to promote information, dialogue and advocacy on HIV/tuberculosis issues in Zimbabwe, and Obrian coordinates all of their respective activities.

He came to know about IRMA through a friend who is a fellow HIV activist and an admirer of IRMA’s advocacy strategies. She advised Obrian to subscribe to the listserv, and he has been an active member ever since.

In Obrian’s perspective, rectal microbicides are an important priority among new HIV prevention technologies because very little has been done or said about them in Southern Africa - even though they have the potential to save lives. He believes that more research needs to be done on them because of the need for a complete arsenal of tools to fight the transmission of HIV.

“We will never reach a stage where we will sit back and say we have done enough, so we have to broaden the base of HIV prevention technologies!”

Obrian is an advocate to be admired, as he has taken much personal initiative for promoting microbicides in a region of the world where resources are lacking. In Zimbabwe and the surrounding countries, he acknowledges that little information on rectal microbicides is available. As a result, he takes every opportunity he can through workshops, reports, and other means to advocate for more information dissemination regarding microbicides and to push for more feasibility studies

When he is not hard at work advocating for rectal microbicides, he loves to watch soccer and spend time with his family.

Read more bios of Friendly Rectal Microbicide Advocates here, on the IRMA site.