Knowledge is Power: Finding Affirming HIV Services in Joburg
Following recent USAID/PEPFAR funding cuts, which have resulted in the closure of several queer-friendly clinics and services, many in the LGBTQI+ community are left without clear pathways to stigma-free HIV prevention, testing, and treatment.
As a queer, activist archive, GALA has been left with the question many organisations are faced with: What can we do?
We have been gathering material relating to the cuts, clinic closures and community response since January. These include screenshots of closure notices, news article, campaigns and organising posts and posters.
Our 2025 GALA intern Lesego Mpumelelo Nzuza wanted to do more, particularly focusing on the student communities around Braamfontein, Parktown and Ackland Park. And so GALA’s #KnowWhereToGo campaign was born.
The drive behind the campaign is to gather and share knowledge through community participation, beginning with a workshop on 26 June in Braamfontein (see flyer for details).
This information sharing workshop is a first step in a project that seeks to address the growing gap in accessible, affirming HIV-related services for LGBTQI+ students and young people in Johannesburg, particularly within student districts. It aims to address this urgent gap by spotlighting affirming public healthcare options, queer-friendly staff, and peer-reviewed recommendations from within the community.
The campaign seeks to empower queer students with the information they need to access available resources, build community dialogue, and foster knowledge-sharing around affirming sexual health services.
As project hosts, the GALA Queer Archive will use information gathered at the workshop to create posts for our Instagram campaign page, @joziqueershare. We stress that the campaign relies on community engagement and participation, giving tips based on personal experiences on how and where to access services. This is particularly important given the shifting landscape we find ourselves in.
We invite current and former service providers, including student health services, Engage, OUT, and ANOVA, as well as the broader queer student community in and around Braamfontein, Parktown and Auckland Park, to attend, to come with questions, to raise issues, to share their experiences and tips, and to learn from others. This will be a safe and facilitated space, open to all who have a commitment to health justice.
After the workshop, the campaign continues online, and we encourage people to share their experiences, to help others, via the @joziqueershare Instagram page here, or through the campaign email address joziqueershare@gmail.com.
Archive Display
The workshop space will also include a display of past HIV/AIDS campaigns from the collections of GALA Queer Archive, showing the pivotal role played by LGBTQI+ communities in activism, care, and survival. This small exhibition will offer context, honour the legacy of resistance, and connect past struggles to present realities faced by young queer people navigating a changing healthcare landscape.
Archive Collection
As an archive, we try to collect material pertaining to major events and campaigns relevant to queer South Africans. We are currently gathering articles, screenshots (e.g. of account and clinic closures) relating to the withdrawal of USAID and the resulting impact on services affecting the queer community. If readers have any material to add, physical or digital, please contact GALA Archivist: Linda.Chernis@wits.ac.za
GALA Queer Archive
The GALA Queer Archive is a non-profit archive based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Founded in 1997, GALA aims to act as a catalyst for the production, preservation and dissemination of information about the history, culture and contemporary experiences of LGBTQI+ people in South Africa, and beyond. In addition to the archive program, GALA is also involved with research, youth work, public education programs, book publishing, film screenings, exhibitions, conferences and dialogues. We use these methods and events to bring the archive to the public, as well as to build the archive through public contributions and engagement.
Article written by Linda Chernis and Lesego Mpumelelo Nzuza – GALA Queer Archive
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