By: Agape Ishimwe – Ubugeni Bwomora
When the International AIDS Society chose Kigali as the host of IAS 2025, it was more than a logistical decision; it was a statement that the heart of the HIV response beats loudly on the African continent. For several days, over three thousand researchers, activists, policy‑makers, and community leaders gathered in my city to wrestle with a single question: with all the progress in HIV science, will the world find the courage to end the epidemic for everyone, everywhere?
Walking into the conference halls, the scale alone was humbling. Sessions unpacked the latest research, from long‑acting HIV treatment and prevention options to integrated models of care that bring HIV, mental health, and sexual and reproductive health under one roof. Yet what stayed with me most was not only the science, but the constant, insistent reminder that people must remain at the centre of this response—especially young people living with HIV who are too often talked about, but rarely truly listened to.
The numbers tell part of the story. In Rwanda, about 3 percent of adults are living with HIV—roughly 210,000 people—with thousands of new infections every year. Young people carry a heavy share of this burden, and adolescent girls and young women are still at greater risk of acquiring HIV than their male peers. Behind each statistic is a teenager navigating disclosure, stigma, school, relationships, and medication adherence, often in silence. At IAS 2025, study after study confirmed what many of us already know from lived experience: without tackling stigma, mental health, and structural inequalities, even the most advanced treatments will never reach their full potential.
This is where my commitment through Ubugeni Bwomora, “Art that Heals”, feels both small and deeply necessary. Our project works with young people aged 14–19 living with HIV in Karongi District, using art, storytelling, and mentorship to create spaces where they can process trauma, build self‑acceptance, and imagine economic futures rooted in their gifts. What began as my personal search for healing—after discovering I had been living with HIV since childhood—has grown into a collective journey for adolescents who, like me, were tired of hiding in the shadows. In their paintings, performances, and conversations, they are not just “beneficiaries”; they are artists, storytellers, and leaders in their own right.
Sitting in plenary sessions in Kigali, I heard global experts talk about “person‑centred care” and “community‑led responses”. In every slide deck, I could see the faces of the young people in Karongi. When speakers described how stigma, silence, and inequity still block access to prevention and treatment, I thought of participants who skip doses to avoid questions from classmates, or who fear dating because of how someone might react to their status. IAS 2025 reminded me that our work with Ubugeni Bwomora is not an “add‑on” to the HIV response; it is part of the core solution. Healing minds and identities is as essential as suppressing viral load.
I leave this conference with new questions and renewed determination. How can we bring the latest prevention messages and treatment literacy into our art workshops, so that creativity and accurate information go hand in hand? How do we build stronger bridges between community‑based projects like ours and the researchers, clinicians, and policy‑makers I met this week? How can the global HIV community invest more intentionally in youth‑led, lived‑experience‑driven initiatives, not as side projects, but as central pillars of national responses? These are not abstract reflections; they will shape how we design our next cycles of Ubugeni Bwomora and how we advocate within Friends Career Center and beyond.
IAS 2025 was more than a conference; it was a call to action, and a mirror. It showed what is possible when world‑class science shares the same stage with communities who refuse to be left behind. Kigali did not just host the world—it lit a spark in those of us who call this place home. That spark is going back with me to Karongi, into every canvas, every story circle, every conversation with a young person who is learning to say, “My life is more than my diagnosis.”
Kigali lit a spark. See you at IAS 2026 in Brazil.
