Godwyns Onwuchekwa

On Saturday, I was in Bristol to have a chat with [African] people affected by HIV in Bristol – [I put ‘Africa’ parenthesis because the group included non-Africans and very welcomed to pariticapte].  The excitement at the thought of a networking group such as Ffena was not only visible; the atmosphere was frenzy with zeal.

Thanks to Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), Bristol we had a very comfortable venue and an amazing lunch. THT had collaborated with us, organised and hosted the meeting and provided all the logistics.

Maureen Ndawana, AHPN’s Community Network Assistant was with me. She introduced the work of AHPN and the idea behind Ffena. Maureen, herself having gone through the programme from its inception, was a good evidence of what the programme can bequeath.

I explained at length the new idea of taking such good programme to local people and making it available to those outside of London. Explaining the benefit of both Ffena to the people and the other way round, it was easy to see how much fired up the audience became. In just about 5 minutes, we needed to reproduce more registration forms.

Ffena supports local people learn how to engage with the [local] media, use blogging, make the best of social media, lobby politicians, train their communities on HIV prevention and making the right choices on sexual health.

For the day, attendees were taken through how to work together on advocacy to making their voices heard. With a lot of experience in advocacy, Human Rights campaigning, advisory roles and having had to opportunity of sitting on many high level panels, making decisions on issues affecting communities, I was able to share with the audience how to be part of “making a difference”.

The session ended with a photo session and with members fired up to contribute more seeing that the personal benefits are great too.

Henroy, the group’s chair person thanked all and agree to be the contact person to liaise more. I will be going back to Bristol soon once they identify what area of skills they would like more training on.

And together; Ffena, people affected by or living with HIV, and myself are going to make a difference.

Watch this space.

I am completely excited at the thought of this opportunity to be part of those making a world of difference this year through the Vodafone World of Difference (WOD) programme.

It was just about 5 days to the close of the application that I went out with my former colleagues. The one was on maternity leave, the other has just moved job and I have also left about 5 months ago.

However, a project we were all part of, is there and it felt like leaving our own baby behind. Although it continues, we wanted so much to continue to contribute and keep it even more vibrant, powerful and as a good force to be reckoned with.

Ffena is a network of Africans in the UK living with and affected by HIV and sexual health needs, that enables their experiences to be shared and their voices to be heard. Ffena is a Luganda word meaning ‘[we] all together’.

The Ffena initiative will inform and invigorate the African Health Policy Network’s (AHPN) work. It will serve to reinforce the value of involvement in the work of the organisation in policy, research and practice. By interacting with and learning from Africans in the UK living with and affected by HIV and sexual health conditions, AHPN gains greater understanding of the particular issues and concerns that affect them, thus enabling AHPN to represent its membership in a more informed and effective manner.

Ffena is a leadership programme that targets Africans in the UK affected by or living with HIV to enable them champion the cause of awareness amongst their community and increase prevention. These Vital Voices [as it was called at inception in 2006] would be the human faces of making a difference in the big society where ignorance about HIV condition is very high leading to stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV but also causing a spiraling rise in the number of those getting infected with HIV in the UK.

The Ffena model is a system that  lets  the people themselves chart the course of their own fate through involvement. It has been tested and proved to be just awesome. So far, those who passed through it have reached various high positions of responsibility both in the HIV sector and outside it.

Being selected as a finalist for this year’s WOD means I get the chance to contributing to increase the impact Ffena is already having in the community since it started as Vital Voices in 2006.

And this is where I will bring my skills to bear. I will be working with the 2 wonderful ladies who are already doing great jobs taking it forward. I will bring to the project my versed experiences in social media and blogging, leadership skills, public speaking, advocacy and a challenging spirit of a go-getter.

Together, working hand-in-hand, I will help take Ffena to another level of fiery vibrancy and changing the lives of its recruits and the wider community.

As an avid blogger, I will be updating this page very often; so stay tuned and watch this space…