Meet George Victor Owino: Our Newest Friendly Rectal Microbicide Advocate!

“You should try being an IRMA advocate; you will love the energy and drive you get from it. If you can say rectal microbicides to over 100 people, you can sell anything to anyone on this earth!”

George is an IRMA advocate from Nairobi, Kenya. There he is the Project Coordinator and Health Educator at Ishtar MSM - a community based organization whose mission is to attain full sexual health rights and social well being for MSM in Kenya. He is also a Board Member at GALCK - the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya. His passions are to advocate for and research issues surrounding access to stigma and discrimination free healthcare for the LGBTI community, environmental conservation, and human rights in general. He also loves to watch horse racing!

He first became familiar with IRMA when a colleague sent him the application to apply for a scholarship to the Project ARM - Africa for Rectal Microbicides meeting in Addis Ababa this past December, in conjunction with ICASA. He was one of 16 people chosen and was surprised to see how vibrant the rectal microbicide movement in Africa had become! He had heard of rectal microbicides and IRMA before, but said he was not aware that such support existed for them in Africa.

George believes rectal microbicides are important to include in a comprehensive approach to combating HIV. He frequently hears stories of condoms bursting and allergies to latex in his work, and he thinks rectal microbicides would be able to help a lot in these situations. “A rectal microbicide would give human beings the power to have safer sex, protect themselves and their partners from infection, and reduce new infection and re-infection,” he said.

He talks about rectal microbicides any time he has the opportunity. He believes that we all have to integrate them into open forum discussion more to help lessen the stigma that surrounds them. The best way to deal with stigma is to face it head on.

Thanks George for all that you do!


[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Meet Alliance Nikuze: Our New Friendly Rectal Microbicide Advocate

“We are more than 7 billion people on this planet; we surely don’t and can’t have one way of having sexual intercourse. Our diversity is our wealth. Our sexuality as human beings is not supposed to be defined by the available prevention tools but all the HIV prevention tools have to be adapted to our sexuality.”

 Alliance is an IRMA advocate who grew up in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. She since moved to Kigali, Rwanda where she has worked and studied, and is currently pursuing a public health degree in Sweden. She is actively involved in the discussions around HIV prevention research.

Alliance’s primary advocacy has been centered on female empowerment and prevention tools which could prevent penile-vaginal transmission, but she has become increasingly interested in the need for rectal microbicides as well. While involved in efforts to engage civil society organizations in medical male circumcision rollout, she became more aware of different sexual practices- particularly anal intercourse. She then heard of IRMA at the Microbicides 2010 conference in Pittsburgh and decided to become an advocate to meet others with a similar interest in rectal microbicides. She has been satisfied beyond her expectations!

Alliance advocates for both male and female use of rectal microbicides. Recently she had what she calls a “wake up call” while talking with a few African women who indicated they really enjoyed anal intercourse. Previously she had believed that women only did this to please their male partners. This exchange reinforced her understanding that women all over Africa need rectal microbicides in order to help prevent HIV.

Alliance attended IRMA's Project ARM - Africa for Rectal Microbicides meeting in Addis Ababa this past December, in conjunction with ICASA, and was excited about the opportunity for everyone there to shape the advocacy and research agenda for rectal microbicides in Africa. She hopes Project ARM will help to dispel the marginalization and discrimination towards those who practice anal intercourse in Africa.

Her advice for HIV prevention advocates is to keep expanding our prevention toolbox. She believes that if you are truly committed to ending HIV, why wouldn’t you stand up for rectal microbicides? If we continue talk about them whenever we can, it will help lessen the stigma, and each time you may be saving someone’s life. She hopes IRMA can reach out to more policy makers, researchers, and advocates so that they know about rectal microbicides and can add them to their discourse and agenda.

In her free time she enjoys reading, watching TV, and spending time with friends and family.

Thanks Alliance for all that you do!


[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Meet Olumide Makanjuola: Our Newest Friendly Rectal Microbicide Advocate!

“Rectal microbicides are a very important new prevention technology. They bring attention to anal intercourse and provide protection for those who practice it, regardless of their sexual identities.”

Olumide is an IRMA advocate from Lagos, Nigeria. He works at TIERs (The Initiative for Equal Rights) for the rights of LGBT people and sexual health rights. He loves his job and the inspiring people he works with.

Olumide first became involved with IRMA when he visited the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) for a week and worked with the IRMA crew (IRMA is housed at AFC.). He joined the IRMA listserv and has since been following the conversations and information shared by members every day. At first he was not sure how this would be helpful to the people he serves in Nigeria, but now he says he sees how valuable rectal mircobicides can be for the gay/MSM community and others who practice anal intercourse.

Olumide was excited to participate in the Project ARM - Africa for Rectal Microbicides meeting held in Addis Ababa this past December, in conjunction with ICASA, which brought together so much expertise and many different community perspectives to help design a road map for rectal microbicides in Africa. He says that it is a long road ahead and implementation of the agenda will be difficult, but he is confident and knows Project ARM’s goals are “surely achievable.”

Throughout his career as an advocate he has faced much stigma and discrimination; anyone standing up for the MSM or LGBT communities in Nigeria does. Sometimes in Nigeria, people think IRMA is promoting homosexuality. Olumide has to fight this stigma as well.

His advice for IRMA is to continue promoting and educating people about rectal microbicides in Africa at the grassroots level, as the Project ARM meeting concluded.

Thanks Olumide, for all that you do!


[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Meet Stefan Baral: Our Newest Friendly Rectal Microbicide Advocate!

“Though linked geographically, there is extreme diversity in the dynamics of transmission of HIV and potential structural interventions to mitigate transmission. Let the local community lead the way in terms of messaging and strategy, and progress will be made while staying on terra firma.”

Stefan Baral is an IRMA advocate from Baltimore, Maryland. He is a physician, epidemiologist and researcher on the faculty of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health focused on creating more community tailored programs, services, and policies for different communities throughout the world.

Stefan first became involved with IRMA while preparing for the Project ARM - Africa for Rectal Microbicides meeting in Addis Ababa this past December, in conjunction with ICASA. He says it was a natural partnership given the communities he works with across Africa, and believes the meeting got a great start on developing a plan for increased advocacy around rectal microbicides and the accessibility of condom-compatible lubricants. He is excited for everything to be moving forward!

He believes rectal microbicides are such a promising new prevention technology due to encouraging evidence from early studies and the likelihood that people would use them. He is hopeful that rectal microbicides will be in the form of a lubricant to increase the chance that people will use them during anal intercourse.

Stefan is also an advocate for other evidence-based prevention strategies. He loves researching them and advocating for those in which he sees potential. Though he believes rectal microbicides will likely be an important prevention strategy moving forward, he says it is crucial to implement services and strategies in the meantime that are already supported by evidence. He also realizes that though advocacy is key in the fight against HIV/AIDS, service provision is just as important to fully serve different communities.
His advice for combatting stigma associated with standing up for rectal microbicides is short, but important: “Focus on the evidence.”

Thanks Stefan, for all that you do!


[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Critical to fight stigma and discrimination faced by MSM

via Inside Story, by Gregory Trotter

The dream of the AIDS-free generation will never be realized as long as there remain countries in the world that kill and imprison people for being gay.

Same goes for countries that won’t even acknowledge homosexuality exists within their national boundaries and therefore fail to provide targeted HIV prevention and treatment services. Such are the realities underscored by a new report, “Achieving an AIDS-free Generation for Gay Men and Other MSM,” released by amfAR and Johns Hopkins University on Wednesday.

The report studied the funding and implementation of HIV services targeted for MSM (men who have sex with men) in eight countries where same-sex intercourse is criminalized or heavily stigmatized: China, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Guyana, Mozambique, India, Nigeria and Ukraine. Among other findings, the study concluded that MSM are “deprioritized and marginalized by national HIV programs.”

In the report’s own words: “It will be impossible to achieve an ‘AIDS-Free Generation’ if MSM are left behind.”

(For those who may not know, the phrase “AIDS-free generation” has been a sort of battle cry for people and organizations involved in the ongoing efforts to stop the 30-year-old AIDS epidemic, gaining momentum since Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used it in her historic November 2011 speech.)

The report rings true for Jim Pickett, director of prevention advocacy and gay men’s health for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC). Pickett is also chair of the International Rectal Microbicides Advocates, a group that does what its name suggests. His work takes him all over the world to advocate for microbicide research and other HIV prevention strategies.

“Sadly, it’s not new. It’s what we know. But … it’s really important for us to continue to put that message out there. It’s another way to have this discussion, to shine a light on these disparities and to move forward in the right direction,” Pickett said. “(This report) is a really important document.”
Pickett was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, just last month for a meeting with advocates for the launch of Project ARM (stands for Africa for Rectal Microbicides). Project ARM is an IRMA initiative. The conference coincided with the 2011 International Conference on AIDS and STDs in Africa.

It was wrought with tension from the get-go, as anti-gay religious groups caught wind of an African gay men’s health pre-conference satellite and began mounting a protest. Eventually, they were silenced by the Ethiopian government, Pickett said. But it was an uncomfortable learning experience: IRMA and Project ARM kept their own agendas low-profile and encountered no problems.

At the Project ARM meeting, advocates from Malawi, Uganda and other countries talked about the fear of being discovered gay after receiving threats of bodily harm and death.

“We acknowledge that in our quest for developing these new HIV prevention strategies like rectal microbicides, they are for naught if people aren’t safe, if they can’t be who they are wherever they are,” Pickett said. “If you are so deeply stigmatized or demonized that you have to be hidden, you’re not going to come up and go to the counter and get a rectal microbicide. You’re not going to get any services.”

As an example, Pickett pointed to the arrests of nine gay men in Senegal following the 2008 ICASA. Word quickly rippled through the gay community in Senegal.

Read the rest.



[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

ICASA 2011: The 16th Annual International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa

IRMA's Project ARM is is a project with the goal of expanding African mobilization and enhancing community capacity around rectal microbicide advocacy, eventually hoping to aid the development of an African rectal microbicide agenda through community participation. IRMA and Project ARM are going to be at ICASA - the 16th annual International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa - this December in Ethiopia - are you?

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Who? IRMA, Project ARM, and thousands and thousands of other advocates from all over Africa and the world. YOU too!

What? The theme for this year's conference is OWN, SCALE-UP & SUSTAIN.

Where? Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

When? 4-8 December 2011

Why? Register to impart your knowledge, experience and best practices on HIV, AIDS and STIs; call up all players to raise ownership, commitment and support; and get your voice heard in an international platform.

 [If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Dakar: Report from ICASA

by IRMA member Lourence "Larry" Misedah of Kenya (pictured above)

It was a first in the history of the International Conference on AIDS and STI in Africa (ICASA). At the 15th ICASA held in Dakar, Senegal from 3-7th December 2008,there was high visibility and a wide presentation of LGBTI issues.

The LGBT pre-conference brought different participants together to unearth the truths and face realities as an emergence for the African LGBTI rights movement’s response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic. This led to a well-laid-out strategy and coordination to ensure strong representation through out the conference session, embodied by the pink book put together by Joel Nana (IGHLRC). Besides, the IGLHRC (International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission) and the Africa Gay booths provided space for a healthy interaction with the public and a display of different material about same sex practices in Africa.

Notably, building on the key lessons learned of AIDS 2008 to strengthen the epidemic in Africa, it came out strongly on the need to address the epidemics in at risk populations through targeted prevention. This followed different research that has continued to indicate high prevalence rates among MSM even in countries where the rates are lower in the general population.

However, as noted by the Joint Press release by 12 organizations working on LGBTI issues, only 7 countries have included MSM in the strategic plan while only Kenya and South Africa have included WSW (women who have sex with women). Nevertheless the shared experience from Kenya and South Africa showed that inclusion in the National Strategic Plans (NSPs) does not automatically result in programming. There is therefore a need to ensure that the inclusion within the NSPs is accompanied by targeted programs. As well, whereas there has been some research done on MSM in Africa, it was also noted there is barely any study on WSW. A study done in South Africa has shown high prevalence rate in WSW - hence there is a need to carry out further research on the issue.

With the conclusion of the conference, the major challenge remains on if and how the issues of the most at risk groups will be integrated in the different countries national responses.