A Message of Resilience, Gratitude, and Hope

Dear APHA Family, Partners, and Champions

As we close the chapter on 2025, I find myself reflecting on a year that tested us in ways we never anticipated, yet revealed the true strength of our community and the power of our collective resolve.

This has been a difficult year—one that challenged us to think differently about sustainability, partnerships, and the very essence of what it means to be a community-driven organisation. Through every challenge and every obstacle, one truth has remained constant: we are stronger together.

Despite the challenges, I am incredibly proud of what we accomplished:

• Our Ground Forces remained 100% committed and active in their communities, continuing to reach the most vulnerable with life-saving HIV prevention information and support.

• We maintained our national advocacy presence, co-convening the multi-stakeholder meeting on Lenacapavir with SANAC and the National Department of Health, and sustaining our critical role in the Prevention Technical Working Group.

• We stayed relevant, impactful, and visible at pivotal conferences, including IAS, ICASA, and the SRHR Youth Conference.

This year also brought extraordinary global recognition to our work and our people: I was recently honoured to serve as a keynote speaker at the UNAIDS PCB in Brazil, sharing the platform with UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima and Brazil’s Health Minister, Alexandre Padilha. This was a powerful reminder that community voices belong at the highest tables of global health decision-making.

I received the AAAS Mani Bhaumik Award 2025, a recognition that belongs not to me alone, but to every Ground Force member, every advocate, and every community member who makes this work possible.

Our Ground Force member, Nomonde Ngema, was featured in the prestigious Lancet series chaired by our Chairperson, Professor Linda-Gail Bekker. This is proof that our communities are not just beneficiaries of health interventions, but experts and thought leaders in their own right. APHA had the privilege of hosting the CEO of Gilead Sciences on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in South Africa, demonstrating that global pharmaceutical leaders recognise the value of authentic community partnership.

APHA made significant strides in diversifying its scope to include the critical intersection between HIV, obesity, and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). We participated and spoke at the World Obesity Conference in Spain and at the United Nations General Assembly, and co-convened a roundtable on obesity on the sidelines of the G20 Summit—positioning APHA as a thought leader in this emerging area of health equity.

We brought a strong delegation to ICASA in Accra, contributing meaningfully to discussions and platforms that will shape the future of HIV prevention across Africa.This year challenged us to reimagine our fundraising strategy and embrace the transformative power of collaboration. We are deeply grateful for the unwavering support from:

• AVAC, Desmond Tutu Health Foundation, ViiV Healthcare, and Gilead Sciences for their critical financial and strategic support.

• MTV Staying Alive, IPM, Shout It Now, Emthonjeni, ICWEA, and many other valued partners for walking this journey with us and amplifying community voices.

Whilst we celebrate these achievements, we stand at a crossroads that demands our urgent attention and collective action.

The global health funding landscape is shifting, and the consequences for HIV prevention and advocacy are dire. As funding frameworks, contracts, and donor priorities evolve, we are witnessing a dangerous trend towards deprioritising the very community engagement and advocacy efforts that have proven most effective in reaching those left behind by traditional health systems. This is not sustainable. This is not acceptable.

South Africa has committed to ambitious HIV prevention targets, and globally we have pledged to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. Yet how can we meet these targets when the community-led organisations that do the hardest and most critical work—reaching adolescent girls and young women, engaging men, supporting key populations, and building prevention literacy at the grassroots level—are being systematically underfunded and undermined?

Community engagement is not a luxury in HIV prevention; it is the foundation. Without it, biomedical innovations gather dust in warehouses. Prevention tools remain out of reach. Stigma persists. Lives are lost.

The Ground Forces who knock on doors in townships and rural communities, the peer educators who create safe spaces for difficult conversations, and the advocates who hold systems accountable—this work cannot be defunded without consequence. When we withdraw support from community-led HIV prevention, we do not just lose programmes; we lose trust, relationships, and lived expertise that no amount of clinical intervention can replace. We have proven our impact, demonstrated our resilience, and shown that community-driven approaches work. Now, we need the global health community, donors, and governments to honour that evidence with sustained, meaningful investment.

The stakes could not be higher. Every funding gap translates into young women without access to prevention information. Every delayed decision leaves communities vulnerable. Every cut to community advocacy weakens our collective ability to meet the 2030 targets we have all committed to achieving.

To our incredible team, our fearless Ground Forces, and our visionary Board: your dedication, creativity, and resilience have been nothing short of extraordinary. You are the heartbeat of APHA, and I am honoured to serve alongside you. To our partners and donors: thank you for believing in the power of community-driven initiatives and for standing with us through both triumph and challenge. Your continued support is not just appreciated—it is essential to the future of HIV prevention.

As we step into 2026, we do so with renewed energy, hard-won wisdom, and an unshakeable belief in the power of community. The road ahead will require continued innovation, deeper collaboration, and unwavering commitment to the communities we serve.

It will also require courage: the courage to speak truth to power, to demand sustainable funding for community-led work, and to refuse the false choice between biomedical innovation and community engagement. We need both. Communities deserve both.

If 2025 taught us anything, it is that we are built for this work. We are resilient. We are impactful.  We are indispensable. And we are not going anywhere.

Thank you for being part of this journey. Here’s to everything 2026 will bring, and to the unwavering commitment that will get us there.

With deep gratitude, fierce determination, and hope,

Yvette Raphael

Executive Director