Archived Programmes
Grupo Amigos
Grupo Amigos is a peer support group space for people of Latin American heritage living with HIV. The meetings are held face-to-face at NAZ's office. Un espacio seguro en persona para personas de ascendencia latinoamericana.
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Grupo Amigos es un espacio de grupo de apoyo entre pares para personas de ascendencia latinoamericana que viven con VIH. Las reuniones se llevan a cabo cara a cara en la oficina de NAZ. Um espaço seguro para pessoas de herança latino-americana.
Grupo Amigos é um espaço de grupo de apoio para pessoas de herança latino-americana que vivem com o HIV. As reuniões são realizadas frente a frente no escritório da NAZ. Se você se identificar como um homem ou mulher latino-americano vivendo com HIV, ou se identificar como trans ou não-binário - ou qualquer combinação destes.
If you identify as a Latin American man or woman living with HIV, or identifying as trans or non-binary - or any combination of these. Si te identificas como un hombre o mujer latinoamericano que vive con VIH, o identificándote como trans o no binario - o cualquier combinación de estos.
The objective is to improve the health and well-being of Latino men, women and non-binary people. This in turn can provide positive outcomes, such as improved levels of confidence, reduced isolation through social connection, increased knowledge around sexual health and empowerment to address or work through community-specific issues.
El objetivo es mejorar la salud y el bienestar de los hombres, mujeres y personas no binarias latinas. Esto a su vez puede proporcionar resultados positivos, como mejores niveles de confianza, menor aislamiento a través de la conexión social, mayor conocimiento en torno a la salud sexual y empoderamiento para abordar o trabajar a través de cuestiones específicas de la comunidad.
O objetivo é melhorar a saúde e o bem-estar de homens, mulheres e pessoas não-binárias latinas. Isto, por sua vez, pode proporcionar resultados positivos, como melhores níveis de confiança, redução do isolamento através da ligação social, aumento do conhecimento em torno da saúde sexual e capacitação para abordar ou trabalhar através de questões específicas da comunidade.
nOSCARS
The NAZ OSCARS (nOSCARS) is NAZ’s annual black-tie celebration which throws a spotlight on the HIV epidemic in order to increase HIV awareness and knowledge and to speak out against HIV stigma, homophobia and intersectional inequality.
Now in its eighth year, the nOSCARS is a red-carpet event packed with live music, entertainment and comedy where we don’t shy away from sharing personal stories, HIV statistics or addressing serious issues, particularly when it comes to highlighting the huge gap between the sexual health outcomes of Black, Brown and Global Majority communities and those of the rest of the population.
Black, Brown and Global Majority communities often have a very different experience of sexual health services in very different cultural and socio-economic contexts, particularly when it comes to accessing culturally appropriate treatments. The nOSCARS showcases innovation and outstanding community impacts in the sexual health sector, and is dedicated to raising the profile of the people and projects that are making headway in improving the sexual health and well-being of our BAME communities.​
10/10
The Ten out of Ten Awards facilitate an important conversation about the intersections that must converge, in order to meet the UN target of ending all new HIV diagnoses, by 2030. This exhibition amplifies the stories of 10 individuals, who represent a broad collective of academics, doctors, researchers, civil servants, human rights advocates and social influencers.
The honourees are mainly from minority communities. This is intentional. Minority communities have been, and continue to be, disproportionately impacted by HIV.
It is therefore fitting to provide another lens through which minority communities are viewed, within the HIV story – one in which leaders from minority communities provide the strategic leadership, innovation and research required to see the end of the epidemic.
Gospel according to HIV
The role of the church is never underestimated by those within its reach. Data from the 2016 Stigma Index reinforces the transformative role the church and faith leaders can play for someone living with HIV: 59% of minoritised ethnic people living with HIV felt supported when they told someone in their faith community about their status.
The Gospel According to HIV harnesses the church’s influence as an agent of social change, in line with the UNAIDS goal to help end all new HIV diagnosis by 2030. NAZ, Mildmay and their partners recognise the church — as a space for both spiritual nourishment and social action — should be considered a key conduit to reaching minority communities across the UK. The importance of the church in minoritised ethnic communities is reinforced by the latest available data from the Evangelical Alliance report which shows that 48% of churchgoers in London are Black.
Harnessing the church’s power in the communities we serve has long been a strategic and operational position at both NAZ and Mildmay and forms part of the NAZ- led Countdown to Zero campaign, a series of events and conversations aimed at prioritising the needs of Black, Brown and Global Majority communities in the fight to end all new HIV diagnoses by 2030.
Speaking Positive
A project committed to tackling internalised stigma affecting members of the Latin American community. More than four decades after the HIV pandemic, the high level of stigma and discrimination faced by people living with HIV can still hold us back. This project will look at our own stigma of HIV and how to overcome it.
As part of the Fast Track Cities HIV Self-Stigma Empowerment Project, we want to bring together a group of Latin American people living with HIV to explore and understand how HIV self-stigma can hold us back.
We will run a series of workshops in Spanish and Portuguese so that we can feel open and comfortable sharing our stories and experiences in our native language. We will work together to create a series of podcasts at the end of the programme that will help and inspire others to tackle their own sense of HIV self-stigma.
We want to build a group of people from Latin American communities that feel comfortable talking and sharing their stories about HIV. We want people to feel empowered and help each other move beyond HIV self-stigma. We want people to be able to then share those stories with others.
We are aiming to make an impact by having language-specific podcasts at the end of the project, that others from the Latin American community can listen to and learn from.METRO and Naz are working in partnership with Numero de Serie, to design this project which will take place in Spanish and Portuguese. There are very few language-specific projects to help the community, and we are hoping this approach will build confidence and a sense of community solidarity.
The project is for Latin American people living with HIV who are also gay or bisexual men, women, or identify as trans or non-binary - or any combination of these.
People use this service if they feel:
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I want to meet other people living with HIV from Latin American communities
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I want to better understand the causes of internalised or self HIV stigma
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I would like to understand more about HIV, what U=U/can't pass it on is and how to live well with HIV
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To work on my self-acceptance, self-esteem and my individual sense of power
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To develop my confidence in speaking about HIV, privately and publicly
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So I can be a role model for others living with HIV from Latin American communities
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Meet others living with HIV
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Feel more confident about talking about HIV with peers and others
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Increase your understanding of the HIV self-stigma that might hold you back
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To have fun and get a positive sense of what living well with HIV is all about
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If you want to share your story with others and hear their story
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If you want to feel empowered about living with HIV and the future
For those of us raised in Latin American communities, there are cultural and religious norms that might have held us back from being who we wanted to be. There is also a large degree of stigma surrounding sex, sexuality and gender identity, and HIV.
We believe by sharing our stories together, we will come up with solutions and create a climate where we can heal from the self-stigma we may experience in living with HIV. Understanding how stigma affects us, or how we've moved through this, and sharing with each other we hope that we will be able to heal and support each other. We can then help others with the same issues.
There are many people living in London from Latin American communities who live with HIV. We don't always hear our voices, and so we believe that in order to create change we need to share our stories to help and support ourselves and others.
Bearded and Flushed
Bearded and Flushed is a partnership between Naz, Sophia Forum, 4M and Positively UK and was funded by the Public Health England Innovation Fund 21/22. the Workshops were facilitated by actor and writer Maggie Saunders.
In 2018 approximately 11,100 women of potentially menopausal age (45-56) attended HIV care in the UK, a 5-fold increase over 10 years. Women living with HIV are more likely to be at risk of early menopause than women without HIV. There are currently an estimated 30,400 women living with HIV in the UK, of those 1,800 are undiagnosed and 19,100 are Black African Women. This project took a fresh approach to growing older with HIV.
Bearded & Flushed provided space for 16 women ageing with HIV, to discover their creative voice over a series of writing workshops focussing on living well with HIV and going through the menopause. More and more women with HIV are getting older and experiencing menopause, but they face a double taboo. These writing workshops gave creative expression to one of the most under spoken and under-researched areas of women's lives.
Using peer support, sex-positive language and positive psychology to build safe places, the women explored living with HIV and the menopause. Over the course of the workshops, the groups grew in confidence with their writing, through games and exercises, and in the support, they gave each other. Their shared experience of living with HIV and journeying through the menopause highlighted similarities and differences culturally and emotionally, which provided a rich platform to write from.
The result is a life-affirming collection of stories, poems, haikus and love letters by women modelling extraordinary talent, courage and wisdom to countless other women going through the menopause and living with HIV.
Following on from these workshops, we filmed individual vignettes and a short film featuring the work and stories of some of the women from the courses, directed by Tom Line.
"Bearded and Flushed is a genuinely groundbreaking project - allowing us to engage with and understand the experiences of older women with HIV, a group who have been historically underrepresented in research and popular culture. As a clinician, I learned so much. As a perimenopausal woman, I found comfort, solidarity and hope in these stories. Thank you for a powerful and moving evening."
Dr Shema Tariq PhD FRCP (she/her)
Postdoctoral Clinical Research Fellow & Consultant in HIV/Sexual Health
UCL Centre for Clinical Research in Infection and Sexual Health
"This creative journey has been a revelation. That we can talk about and tackle an issue which for centuries has been such a taboo subject, in a fun, thoughtful, provocative, sexy, loud and sensitive way. All rolled into one. It was amazing to learn, to share and to celebrate my writing with my fellow sisters living with HIV and going through the menopause. I didn't know what to expect when I signed up for the workshop. But boy was I glad I did. Because I made special, practical and fun memories with a group of incredible women." - Bearded & Flushed Writer
My Message to you
A project commited to challenging HIV stigma and increasing the engagement of Latin Americans in HIV prevention approaches and sexual health services in England.
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We created five short documentary-style films under the title "My Message to You". Funded by Public Health England, "My Message to You" is a collaboration between METRO Charity and Mexican HIV activist and artist, Roberto Tovar, the founder of Numero de Serie.
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The films feature Latin Americans living with HIV in England and offer viewers a glimpse into what it's like to live with HIV in 2021. In each film, participants describe the challenges that they have faced for living with HIV, as well as how their experience has helped define their sense of self and outlook on life going forward.
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Directed by Roberto Tovar
Filmed and edited by Thomas Line
Graphic design by Vicente RM, Carlos Romo-Melgar, and John Philip Sage
Faithworks
A collaborative project led by NAZ, partnered with Africa Advocacy Foundation (AAF) and JAT, formally known as Jewish AIDS Trust, to improve access to HIV and sexual health education, support and testing within faith communities across London.
We are a team of experienced health professionals and educators who will work with you and your community to improve health awareness. There is a moral imperative to ensure that all members of faith communities keep themselves and their loved ones healthy. Coming from faith communities ourselves, our approach is honest, sensitive and respectful. Faith Leaders play a vital role in promoting health messaging - as we have seen during the COVID pandemic - and we know that your reach and influence can bring about significant positive change.
Watch this new short film featuring four people living with HIV talking about HIV and the role of faith leaders in challenging attitudes towards HIV. Bought to you by Faithworks, a partnership between Naz, AAF, and JAT all working in the field of HIV. Funded by Fast-Track Cities.
Muslim in the city
A safe in-person space for Muslim people living with HIV.
​Muslim in the City is a peer support group space for Muslim people living with HIV. The meetings are held face-to-face at NAZ's office. All genders and sexualities are welcome! If you identify as a Muslim man or woman living with HIV, or identifying as trans or non-binary,- or any combination of these, come along! can I bring a friend? Of course, as long as they also identify as Muslim and are living with HIV.
The objective is to improve the health and well-being of Muslim men, women and non-binary people. This in turn can provide positive outcomes, such as improved levels of confidence, reduced isolation through social connection, increased knowledge around sexual health and empowerment to address or work through community-specific issues.
