The Unite to Fight AIDS Speaker Tour is now entering its fifth year. This year the tour will bring four dynamic young AIDS activists from three different continents to speak to students at 18 Universities nationwide. Come along to one of our events and hear these amazing people share their experiences.

The Speakers

Ntenje Katota, Zambia

Aged 21 Ntenje is the main carer for her HIV positive mother and has experienced first hand the difference that access to comprehensive AIDS services can make. As well as supporting her mother, Ntenje has been involved with peer education, care and support initiatives for people living with HIV in Zambia. Ntenje feels she is the voice of the voiceless, as most young people who are affected by the pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa do not have the opportunity to speak out. Her mother’s strength and believe in the fight against the pandemic has had a profound influence on her own life choices.

Shahada Kinyaga, Tanzania

Shahada is one of many young Tanzanians rising up to tackle HIV head on. Outraged by the devastation the virus is causing, particularly amongst young people, Shahada has been working to turn this situation around. Before starting at University Shahada volunteered full time for 9 months in a rural school with SPW Tanzania. Since then she has continued her involvement, working as a reproductive health and HIV counsellor in the University of Dar es Salaam, and leading HIV prevention outreach activities in the slum areas around the city. Through her work Shahada has become increasingly convinced that education alone cannot bring down the increasing rates of infections. Young people need the space to talk freely and openly about HIV and their sexual health with their peers. She hopes that the work she is involved with is playing a small part in providing this space.

Will Horwitz, UK

Until he spent 8 months in Zambia before going to university, Will knew and cared little about AIDS. Zambia was a bit of a shock, and so when he started university he co-founded a Stop AIDS Society, and has been involved in the campaign since. He spent 3 months last summer in South Africa, volunteering with the Treatment Action Campaign, where he helped launch a national campaign against the government’s record on HIV/AIDS, and avoided both arrest and pepper spray far more successfully than his South African activist counterparts. He graduated this summer.

Katy Athersuch, UK

The Student Stop AIDS Campaign Coordinator, coordinating 20 Student Stop AIDS Societies throughout the UK and supporting the wider Student Stop AIDS Coalition. Katy was a founding member of the Sussex Student Stop AIDS Society at university.