A young Ghanaian advocate involved in community outreach

Abdul-Fatawu Salifu is a young advocate who has been involved in community outreach since he was a teenager. He has faced many challenges in his life, dealt with stigma, and agonised over uncertainty, all after losing his mother at a young age. Through all of that, he chose to direct his energies into advocating for a community silenced by stigma and criminality.

The Ghanaian 28-year-old is a licensed nutritionist, a voice for communities living with disease, an advocate for public health, the climate, and an alternate board member of the Communities Delegation to the Executive Board of Unitaid and now the newest ATACH Champion for Communities. He champions the rights and well-being of people living with HIV (PLHIV), advocating for equitable access to healthcare.

Life interrupted

As Abdul was preparing to start high school, he was notified that a blood test came back "reactive."

"I had no idea what reactive meant. I had no idea what confirmatory test was. So, I just went back home trying to forget about it because I didn't believe I had HIV", Abdul said.

When he got home, he tried to find out more information, but due to the stigma faced by those living with the disease, he was limited to searching on the internet.

"Google can make or break you."

The stress of being unable to find reliable information, feeling like he needed to hide his test results and who he was impaired his studies and led to physical and mental health issues. It wasn't until he was invited to an event by the NGO Hope for Future Generations that he started to feel hope for a better life.

"I could hear people talking about something that was really, really important to me. That was my safe space, to be able to go there and ask more questions."

Speaking up for others

He started volunteering with Hope for Future Generations and worked to bridge the information gap that many young people were facing. He also wanted to provide safe spaces for HIV-positive young men who have sex with men (MSM) as they face the double burden of not being able to disclose their sexual orientation and their health issues.

Abdul joins ATACH as a Champion advocating for patients and communities, utilising the ATACH network to ensure patient and community voices are heard by policymakers. He advocates for policy and strategies to ensure medicines and other essential supplies reach patients when they need them.

Climate change impacting an already burdened community

People who are HIV-positive can encounter issues with reliable access to medicines due to supply chain interruptions. Increasingly extreme weather in Ghana due to climate change causes floods that damage and block supply routes for days or weeks. It is recommended to keep antiretroviral drugs or antiretrovirals (ARVs) below 30°C - which is often exceeded in Ghana - so patients are not sure of their medicines' efficacy after it has spent sometimes months in transit.

"In Africa, we live the realities of climate change. It is no longer a concept for us."

Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH) welcomes its newest Champion and looks forward to advancing action in building climate-resilient supply chains. His passion for sharing knowledge, helping communities find a voice and skilled diplomacy will serve to advocate for ATACH and climate action.

"If there's something wrong and you are angry, don't shout, don't talk at that moment because you will say the wrong things. Always keep calm, collected, and then keep your thoughts together. And that was the first teaching of diplomacy I received from my mom."