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This December 1st is a busy one for AVAC—in addition to being World AIDS Day, it also marks our 25th anniversary advocating for the ethical development and accelerated delivery of HIV prevention options that work for the people who need them most. And this year it’s also #GivingTuesday.
It’s a time of tremendous change, challenge and possibility. AVAC and our partners have been forging a path through this shifting terrain with our eyes on a transformational and utterly achievable goal—equity-driven pandemic preparedness at the global level.
Far-sighted evidence-based, human-rights-centered advocacy has always been at the heart of AVAC’s work, since we began advocacy for the ethical development of an HIV vaccine in 1995. Check out our timeline for a snapshot of our work and milestones in the field over the past 25 years.
In AVAC’s letter marking World AIDS Day, we stake out three actions as 2021 advocacy priorities—program for choice, invest in cadres of community health workers, and pursue equitable access to essential health products and services. These priorities draw from our knowledge that progress against HIV has been remarkable and highly unequal. That important but uneven progress is now threatened by the ravages of COVID-19, which in turn stems from a world that has so far failed to invest in the systems that forestall pandemics.
At AVAC, our programs, partnerships, publications, convenings and advocacy tools are framing the issues, helping to identify opportunities to advance the work, and supporting a cadre of informed advocates to engage with global health decision-makers. Our advocacy priorities for HIV prevention demand a similar determination to apply what we’ve learned to global pandemics writ large, to protect the global gains and usher in a newly possible equitable response to pandemics.
- Grassroots organizing by and for young women who know the options they need
- Rigorous, data-driven campaigns to shift policies and targets at country and global level
- A cadre of LGBT and key population activists committed to ensuring human rights in biomedical strategies
- Analysis, infographics and explanatory materials for today's most complex topics from research to rollout of biomedical interventions for HIV and COVID-19
This #GivingTuesday, we hope you’ll consider supporting this work!
There are several ways to share your financial support:
- Donate via our website: Visit www.avac.org/donate.
- Amazon Smile: Shop at Amazon.com Visit smile.amazon.com and select AVAC as your charity of choice and a portion of your purchase price is donated to AVAC—at no additional cost to you!
- US Combined Federal Campaign: If you are a US government employee, support our mission through the Combined Federal Campaign, CFC #12308.
As Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS, said in reference to their new report Prevailing against pandemics by putting people at the centre, “No country can defeat these pandemics on its own. A challenge of this magnitude can only be defeated by forging global solidarity, accepting a shared responsibility and mobilizing a response that leaves no one behind. We can do this by sharing the load and working together.”
Please consider supporting AVAC if you can, and we look forward to working with you going forward!