Mojatu Foundation recently held an HIV education and stigma reduction workshop in Nottingham, funded by Gilead and managed by Charities Aid Foundation through the Zeroing In programme. The event brought together 40 women at Hyson Green Youth Club, where Dr Ezra Omolo facilitated a lively, culturally contextualised, and engaging session that created a safe space for reflection, sharing, and learning. The workshop highlighted that reducing stigma is central to the fight against HIV, exploring the issue from health, social, and religious perspectives while also providing practical information on prevention strategies, access to PrEP and PEP, and free testing services through home kits or local GPs.
Participants discussed the importance of treatment, learning that people living with HIV on effective therapy can achieve an undetectable viral load and therefore cannot pass the virus on. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with many women describing the session as eye-opening, committing to get tested and encouraging others to do so, and emphasising the need to support people living with HIV in stigma-free environments. By the end of the workshop, all participants agreed to play a role in working towards ending HIV in their own way.
