Defeating Viruses Through Trust & Compassion: Chronicles from Eswatini.

When it comes to addressing global health challenges, handling stigma is essential.  In Eswatini 27% of the population lives with HIV.  Organizations like pact have worked within communities to help achieve the 95 - 95 - 95 goal in Eswatini.  This is to say that 95% of persons with HIV are aware of it, and 95% of them have regular access to medication, and 95% of them are experiencing viral suppression.  Getting to this state requires openness, communication, and trust between public health officials and their communities.  Nosipho Gwebu Storer's work in this building that trust is impressive and a lesson for the world to listen to...especially now with vaccine hesitancy against COVID-19.  The story of public health in Eswatini is one the world needs to hear.

Nosipho Gwebu Storer is Pact's Eswatini Country Director. Nosipho Gwebu Storer has more than 17 years of experience in public health and community development, including in HIV care and treatment programs, psychosocial programming and policy and planning. In addition to serving as Pact's Country Director in Eswatini, Nosipho is also the Chief of Party for the Insika ya Kusasahas project and supporting the Eswatini Ministry of Health with technical assistance, messaging dissemination and deployment of the Covid-19 vaccine in the country. Prior to Pact, Nosipho served as a social worker, leading social work support interventions for community prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV programs. She also worked for the Eswatini Baylor Children’s Clinical Centre of Excellence and ICAP with Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. She began her development career working in food security and response programs for areas experiencing severe drought in Eswatini.

Check out the work of Pactworld:https://www.pactworld.org

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