Mi-Health Europe on Partnering only for the good!

By: Lissilanne Silva (@lissilanne)

What do you think when you hear of the word “partnering”? Perhaps, you might think of it in a business setting or something more personal, more intimate such as getting into a relationship, but what about the partnering for good?

Every year, close to 2 million individuals cross into Europe, all seeking better life conditions ranging from political to socio-economic, wellbeing to health. For these people, access to (better) health can become quite challenging when the receiving country does not provide the best policies or environment for them. This is the reason why the collaborations between non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private sector funds and civil society are crucial to sooth some of the stress that migrant communities face in these precarious situations. This is also why we keep pushing for better health policies for all. And this is why we at Mi-Health Europe created the Mi-Health HIV Partnership.

Under the leadership of Africa Advocacy Foundation, we were awarded funding from Gilead’s Zeroing In- Ending the HIV Epidemic grant, as our primary work and program entails ending the HIV epidemic in vulnerable migrant communities across Europe:

  • We are developing culturally appropriate HIV educational materials;
  • We are conducting innovative HIV testing initiatives to address the gaps in the HIV cascade of care for vulnerable migrants;
  • We are creating opportunities to share best practice and expertise among the frontline organizations in our partnership.

Although we at Mi-Health Europe are the lead organization, this program requires collaborative implementation, pushing, therefore, towards partnerships for good. Our implementing partners for Zeroing In are spread across Europe. We´re all together 10 migrant-led organizations that mutually agreed for the first time ever to work in a partnership to advance HIV knowledge, testing and treatment and to address other obstacles to healthcare access that disproportionately impact migrant communities in Europe.

Zeroing In was established by Gilead to empower communities highly affected by HIV and COVID-19 on their current and future wellness and health activities. It is also quite unique as it encapsulates innovative approaches using digital health innovations as well as continuous and close contact with the communities most impacted by HIV. The main areas of this program are Comprehensive HIV Innovation Programs, Digital Health Innovations and – where our Mi-Health HIV Partnership sits – Community Outreach and Education.

For us, the organizations helping to implement our Mi-Health HIV Partnership are the backbone for this challenging but doable mission of ending the HIV epidemic amongst migrant communities in Europe. Improving migrant health is only possible if forces are joined for more partnerships with similar goals. We formed this partnership because we realized that individually, each of our organizations can only achieve so much, but together we can advance community-driven solutions to address the worsening precarity of migrants across the region and to improve migrant health outcomes. We are looking forward to continuing to advance our partnerships for good as we grow

So, this is a bit of the latest on our partnership for good and we are very happy to be doing this work with Plateforme Prevention SIDA (Belgium), AIDS Solidarity Movement (Cyprus), Association PASTT (France), Afrikaherz (Germany), Open Paths Athens (Greece), Associazione LHIVE (Italy), Stichting AFAA Netherlands (Netherlands), Noaks Ark Mosaik (Sweden) & FPCCSIDA (Portugal).

Watch this space for updates on our work and Partnership. In the meantime, what for the good have you done lately? Would your organization be interested in partnering with us? We would love to hear from you. Feel free to reach out at mihealth@africadvocacy.org or anne@africadvovacy.org.

More on Gilead’s Zeroing In: Ending the HIV Epidemic grant program, please check here.

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