Global Health
Global Fund welcomes latest Youth Council members – updates
Global Fund welcomes latest members of the Youth Council
September 27, 2024
Global Fund is worked up to announce the brand new members of its Youth Council.
Founded in January 2020 by Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund, the Youth Council brings together a dynamic group of young people living with, affected by or vulnerable to HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and/or malaria. It serves as an advisory body to the Executive Director and the Secretariat of the Global Fund on youth and youth-related matters. Providing insights from a youth perspective, the Youth Council communicates key issues and contextual nuances from the varied countries eligible to receive allocations from the Global Fund, and seeks to be certain that the Global Fund is informed concerning the unique needs and prospects of young people to maximise the impact of its investments .
The call for applications attracted almost 1,600 applications and resulted within the collection of eight outstanding candidates. They bring invaluable experience and the variety of young people’s perspectives on health, rights and well-being from Argentina, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, India, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Nigeria and Uganda.
Grace Ngulube, current Youth Council Chair, expressed her gratitude to the outgoing members for his or her contributions for the reason that Youth Council’s inception in 2020: “Working with the Executive Director of the Global Fund in 2020 was a transformational experience for young people as a group. The knowledge and experience of our members during the transition period has significantly shaped the vision of the Youth Council, for which I am deeply grateful.”
Horacio Barreda is the present Vice-President and can assume this role in 2025. He shared his enthusiasm about working with the brand new Youth Council to support youth-related priorities at the best levels of the Global Fund: “The challenge of eradicating these three diseases as epidemics is still very much alive. As political priorities change and anti-gender and anti-rights movements gain momentum, resources to fight these three diseases decrease. It is very important that we ensure that young people’s priorities do not become diluted in such a context. I hope that with the new Youth Council we can increase our involvement at the highest decision-making levels of the Global Fund.”
Meet the members of the Youth Council for 2024-2026
Grace Ngulube is an envoy for the HER Voice Fund in Malawi, a board member of the National Association of Young People Living with HIV and AIDS in Malawi (NAPHAM) and founding father of Youth Health Connect360. Its aim is to empower young people and promote young people-friendly health services.
Horacio Barreda is a youth activist from Argentina whose goal is to defend the rights of young people living with HIV. Since 2014, he has been an lively member of the National Network of Young People Living with HIV (RAJAP). He also serves as chairman of the board of the Global Network of Young People Living with HIV (Y+ Global).
Farida Tiemtoré, a dynamic Burkinabe blogger, is devoted to youth and girls’s issues, especially the fight against malaria, HIV and other public health challenges. As the founder and president of Les Héroïnes du Faso, she mobilizes communities and raises awareness. She also serves because the coordinator of Voix EssentiELLES in Burkina Faso.
Iván Molina Aranibar from Oruro, Bolivia, was diagnosed with HIV on the age of 18. Inspired by the lack of an in depth friend to TB and HIV, he’s a robust advocate for raising awareness about HIV and TB. The fourth-year law student uses his education and experience to support youth communities to be certain that nobody is left behind.
Bello Abdussalam is a Nigerian physician who’s keen about empowering future health leaders. He serves because the Global Youth Coordinator for the Global Coalition of Tuberculosis Advocates. He can be a member of the steering committee of the Early Career Researcher Network of the Stop TB Partnership.
Bella Aubree, a young transgender woman from Indonesia, is the national coordinator of Inti Muda Indonesia. She has spent almost six years working on sexual and reproductive health, HIV, tuberculosis and human rights, specializing in young key populations and other people living with HIV.
Amanda Martty Dushime is a dynamic young woman from Burundi living with HIV and has been a peer educator at l’Association Nationale de soutien aux séropositifs et malades du sida (ANSS) since 2018. She is a young ambassador for the Brighter Futures Network, promoting youth leadership within the fight against HIV.
Laura Lontsi Tsakou is a Cameroonian activist, co-founder of the Cameroonian Network of Youth and Young People Living with HIV (RéCAJ+) and the West and Central Africa Network (RAJ+AOC). She currently serves because the Advocacy, Resource Mobilization and Communications Manager at RéCAJ+ and the Executive Secretary of the Association of Young Girls and Women Leaders (YOGAWOL).
Nana Millers is a young transgender activist for rural sex staff in Uganda and the founder and executive director of the Trans Youth Initiative in Uganda. She advocates for the rights of rural transgender women, sex staff and gender diverse youth.
Himani Verma is a TB survivor from Chhattisgarh, India, who has been advocating for stigma-free TB services since her diagnosis in 2017. He is an lively member of the TB Mukt Chhattisgarh Foundation.
Uluk Batyrgaliev is a young sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) activist from Kyrgyzstan. He serves because the SRHR coordinator of the Eurasian Coalition for Health, Rights, Gender and Sexual Diversity (ECOM) and vice-chair of the Board of Directors of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. She also sits on the Expert Committee of the Internet Laboratory of Women’s Rights on the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs.