Jump on say hi!

Hi everyone my name is tshegofatso from south africa based in brits site called madibeng centre for research and i work as assistance community liaison officer.Will like to thank AVAC for this wonderful opportunity and looking forward to work with you all collegues thank you all.

Hi everyone! My name is Jorge Garrido and I’m the executive director of Apoyo Positivo (www.apoyopositivo.org), one of the largest HIV community based organization in Spain and also member of the European AIDS Treatment Group. I’ve been working in the HIV field the last 10 years and growing from a more interventional professional profile, focused in our programs and activities, to a deeper activist work.

The last years I’ve been training some physicians around Europe on community engagement beside also other stakeholder as EATG and pharmaceutical companies.

During 2016 my organization created, beside other big HIV NGOs as BCN Checkpoint, a National Platform advocating for PrEP in Spain. Our main goal has been to guarantee the community rights in the PrEP implementation process and to get an early access to those who need it more right now. We’ve been working with the Health Minister in the working group developing the protocol for PrEP Implementation.

Also recently I’ve been invited to join the CAB for DISCOVER, the new prevention trial from Gilead to prove TAF as PrEP versus Truvada. That was the main reason to join this course and have a deeper knowledge to do my best as community advisory board member in this new trial, which has been stopped in its implementation because it hasn’t followed the GPP principles.

I hope to learn enough and use this experience to do a good work in this research and in future ones.

Thanks a lot for the chance!

Hi Everyone, I am a Global Trial Leader for a pharmaceutical company working on HIV clinical trials and located in the United States in Pennsylvania. I was recommended to take this course by my manager. I would like to get the most out of learning the ins and outs of GPP and how I can use it in my role.

Hi friends my name is Phinda Galela I grow up in dusty township of Soweto I always had interest and love in working with community basically giving back to community information about Health issues. I am a community liaison Officer at Sizwe TB hospital, a Member of CAB also work with various hospital and communities in Clinical trials.

My Goal and Motivation is to Grow in understand Community Engagement and Clinical trial Studies in all Aspects, I believe linking both clinical Research and communities Engagement in Health programs and knowing what is Research, What participation means and importance of Stakeholders. GPP will enhance my skills in CE.

Thanks for granting me this opportunity. Regards
Phinda

Good day. I am Kelvin Vollenhoven and I am the Communications & Marketing Manager at the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI). We are a TB vaccine research group based in Worcester (100km from Cape Town), but also part of the University of Cape Town. Besides Marketing and Communication, Community Engagement and specifically the CAB resides within my area work functionality. I have previous experience working with participatory methodologies in my early formation years when i was involved with a children’s NGO based in Cape Town.

I would like to complete this program in order to deepen my understanding of the theoretical framework underpinning clinical research. I hope to learn a lot from this program.

Hi everyone, my name is Quadri Raymond, born and raised in Lagos Nigeria. a graduate of the international college of aviation and transport studies (ICATS) I am a community advocate and activist for people with disabilities. i currently work with youth builders initiative (YBI) as an admin officer. In this capacities I have been able to advocate for the rights of the people with disabilities both locally and internationally, participated in high level meetings, provided free sexual education in schools, facilitated training and sessions on for outreach workers and peer educators under the global fund new funding project. As a current leaving No Nigerian Behind (LeNNiB) champion undergoing training with New HIV Vaccine and Microbicide Advocacy Society (NHVMAS), I intend to increase my knowledge on HIV prevention and treatment advocacy whilst acquiring new advocacy skills and make contacts in the area of HIV/AIDS. The GPP is a great platform for me to achieve this and I look forward to learning from one another.

HI everyone, this is Orobosa Enadeghe from Nigeria. Orobosa is an epidemiologist and an active volunteer in a plethora of non-governmental organisations. He has over 7 years experience in implementing health projects targeted to youth and women in underserved rural communities in Nigeria in the area of sexual health, behavioural change communication and maternal and child health. He is a 2016 Fellow at the Carrington Youth Fellowship Initiative (CYFI) and with grant support from the United State Government, he co-implements ‘AWOYE Initiative’- a maternal and under-5 health intervention to educate pregnant women/caregivers of under-5 children in slum communities in Nigeria.
As a LeNNiB (Leaving No Nigerian Behind) champion, he currently undergoes a mentorship programme organized by NAHVMAS, AVAC & CASPER. This program in line with his community works prompted him to apply for the GPP online training. He looks forward to advancing his knowledge through this platform.
Orobosa holds MSc in Epidemiology from the University of Ibadan and BSc (Hons.) Microbiology from the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

Hi!!my name is Mmapule and I am a cab member at Setshaba Research Centre in Soshanguve,South Africa.I have been a Cab member since 2011 and I was recruited from theTransport Industry and I am also representing the Sports Coucil and we have a yearly event of a running/walking marathon that attract +/- 5000 participants and we do awareness of HIV/AIDS and research,distributes flyers and also get the opportunity to educate the people who come to the event.I was motivated to take this course as I would love to gain new perspective on things that I don’t know,learn more and experience a different education about research and gain more knowledge and get empowered so that I can also educate others about research.It is truly an honor and a privillage to be part of you.

Hi!! I am María del Rosario (MaR) León and I am Head of the Community Involvement Unit at IMPACTA Peru Clinical trials unit and had experience working on HV trials for more than 10 years. I work on community engagement, community education and communications with my team of educators and recruters. I want to refresh and improve my knowledge about good participatory practice around clinical (HIV and TB) and to share these kwonledges with CAB members and to improve our community engagement activities and monitoring of them.

Hie everyone I am Rosemary Musesengwa. I work for the MRC, Zimbabwe. I am the Head of Training and Communication and I am also the Principal Compliance Officer. For the past 3 years I was doing my PhD in Public Health at the University of KwaZulu Natal. My dissertation was on “Community Engagement Strategies and Experiences in Multicenter Studies”. I used the GPP Book for much of my work, even though the study I worked on was on Malaria & Bilharzia not on HIV/AIDS. I was very interested to go through this training so we can also offer it amongst the other courses we offer, like GCP & Ethics. I am very excited to finally learn more about GPP !!!

HI everyone, I am Aisha Gambari from Nigeria. I am a member of health information for all (HIFA) network. I work with a preventive health company as the corporate project and research coordinator. I volunteer for an NGO working on a Mobile health research Lab involved in school health. I am a LeNNiB (Leaving No Nigerian Behind) champion currently undergoing a mentorship programme organized by NAHVMAS, AVAC & CASPER. This program prompted me to apply for the GPP online training. I’m looking forward to having a nice time here.

Hi everyone, my name is Williams Elizabeth Talatu, an undergraduate of the University of Lagos, Nigeria. I am a community advocate and activist for adolescents girls and serve as a volunteer for various non-governmental organizations such as United Nations Population Fund, Nigeria under the Youth Participatory Platform (YPP), Action Health Incorporated (AHI), Youth Empowerment Development Initiative (YEDI) and Hello Lagos Youth Friendly Center. I have also served as a member of the Girls Engagement Advisory Board (GEAB) with Advocates for Youth based in Washington DC. In this capacities I have been able to advocate for the rights of the vulnerable and marginalized girls domestically and internationally, participated in high level meetings, provided free sexual education in schools, carried out social media advocacy and facilitated training and sessions on girls development. As a current leaving No Nigerian Behind (LeNNiB) champion undergoing training with New HIV Vaccine and Microbicide Advocacy Society (NHVMAS), I intend to increase my knowledge on HIV prevention and treatment advocacy whilst acquiring new advocacy skills and make contacts in the area of HIV/AIDS. The GPP is a great platform for me to achieve this and I look forward to learning from one another.

Hello this is Phaleda Kumwenda , an Rsearch Community Nurse working at Lilongwe UNC project in Malawi. Lilongwe is a multitrial site working on DAIDS funded studies like MTN , HPTN, AACTG and IMPAACT.Iam directly to affiliated to MTN studies as a site MTN Community Working Group member. Being a community nurse I work directly with all sakeholders and I also do community engagement activities hence the good participatory practice will help me understand more on how to conduct community engagement activities and monitoring and evaluation. I look forward to learning with you all!

Good morning! My name is Faith Landsman and I am the Administrative Director of the UCLA CFAR Clinical Research Core in Los Angeles. We are a site for the ACTG, AIDS Malignancy Consortium, the HPTN and the MTN. My role is, in large part, to partner with communities and to make sure that investigators are able to make strong partnerships in communities that they work with. I look forward to learning with you all!

Hello, I am Greer living in Cape Town, South Africa. I completed my undergraduate degree at the African Gender Instute at the University of Cape Town. I have always worked in the area of women’s rights, starting with the Gender Advocacy Programme, advocating for equal representation for women in political parties, and also facilitating training on violence against women with different civil society and government stakeholders. The bulk of my experience has been with the South African National AIDS Council Women’s Sector Secretariat where I was responsable for member coordination and overall programme implementation. In 2014 I was selected as a Kadar Asmal Fellow under Irish Aid, and completed a Masters in Social Policy in October 2016 from the University College Cork in Ireland. Since my return to South Africa I have continued my advocacy work in women’s rights, working with stakeholders for the Ring Study and DREAM around issues of meaningful community participation and advancement of a women’s rights agenda through culturally sensitive programme strategies.

Hi Everyone! I’m Jessica Salzwedel, one of your facilitators for the course! I’ve been a member of the GPP team at AVAC for almost 4 years. Before joining AVAC I working at the Division of AIDS in the Research Ethics branch. Teaching this course is one of my favorite things to do because I get to interact with all of you! Some non-work facts about me… I live in Washington DC. I love to run and have completed 4 full marathons so far. I’m also seven months pregnant with my first child. So, unfortunately I wont’ be able to see your final plans this year. But I will be involved until the baby comes in early April.

I’m really looking forward to meeting everyone! 🙂

HI, my name is Dana Kappel, and I work on community engagement, external affairs and market access at the TB Alliance. I am taking this course to familiarize myself more with good participatory practice around clinical trials because I work with community engagement coordinators on reporting their community engagement activities and monitoring and evaluation. Previously, I worked in medical research and hospitality. I am originally from Chicago, Illinois, and I hold a Master of Arts in World History and a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Studies from Seton Hall University. I serve as a volunteer for Aid Afghanistan for Education, a non-profit focused on empowering the youth of Afghanistan and rehabilitating their education system.