World AIDS Day Resilience and Impact: Health Equity at the Core
By Vignetta Charles, PhD | December 1, 2020
Chief Executive Officer, ETR
December 1st marks the annual Worlds AIDS Day, which is "an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, to show support for people living with HIV, and to commemorate those who have died from an AIDS-related illness." For 2020, this year’s theme is Resilience and Impact. In ETR’s nearly 40-year history addressing HIV/AIDS, we have stayed committed partners in the fight to end the epidemic.
We have witnessed the resilience of people living with HIV as well as the impact of the work to end HIV — particularly the work that centers the voices of communities most impacted. This fight always has health equity at its core — and that is exactly how we approach this work at ETR, using the foundation of our Health Equity Framework.
We have focused on the influence of Physiological Pathways — ensuring people know the physiology of HIV transmission through our HIV Fundamentals eLearning course and health promotion materials for HIV, PrEP, and U=U.
With the influence of Individual Factors on our minds, we co-designed a HIV professional development institute with and for people of trans experience.
Drawing attention to the influence of Relationships and Network, we are using our evaluation skills to help young Black men navigate safer sexual practices in context of relationships through an app, 3T, developed by our partners at dfusion.
And lastly, we stay concentrated on the overarching influence of Systems of Power as we advocate for changes in policies and practices that could enable better access to HIV prevention and care.
As we take this day to reflect and remember those whom we have lost, we also honor them with our dedication towards ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We keep moving forward in our fight through resilience and impact — with health equity at the core of all we do.
In solidarity,
Vignetta
Vignetta Charles, PhD, (she/her/hers) is Chief Executive Officer of ETR. Dr. Charles can be reached at vignetta.charles@etr.org.
