Last weekend, Stella, a DREAMS ambassador and HIV prevention advocate, addressed the crowd at the iKnowKati HIV awareness concert in Lira.
The goal of PEPFAR’s DREAMS initiative is to help girls develop into Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe women. DREAMS works towards ensuring an AIDS-free future for adolescent girls and young women across 10 districts in Uganda, including Lira.
The 10 DREAMS countries (Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) account for nearly half of all the new HIV infections that occurred among adolescent girls and young women globally in 2014. The DREAMS partnership is flipping the script for adolescent girls and young women in those countries, creating the opportunity for them to live the Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe lives they deserve.
DREAMS is supported by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Johnson & Johnson, Girl Effect, and others. DREAMS programs focus on empowering adolescent girls, ensuring improved access to HIV treatment and prevention options, and creating supporting communities in order to address the structural drivers that directly and indirectly increase girls’ HIV risk, including poverty, gender inequality, sexual violence, and a lack of education.
