When Desire speaks about his role as a peer educator in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, the energy and commitment to his work is unmistakable. Desire works in the North Star Alliance Clinic, which provides health services for hard-to-reach populations, mainly sex workers and truck drivers, while also offering services to the surrounding communities.

Desire is a former barman and sex worker who was born and brought up in Victoria Falls. When he found out from a friend that there was a job opening at the clinic he readily applied. His boundless energy and social skills meant that he was quickly hired and trained to become a peer educator.

North Star Alliance clinics are located in areas with high HIV prevalence. They offer primary health-care services, services for sexually transmitted infections and malaria, HIV counselling and testing and screening for tuberculosis. Through the clinic, essential health services are brought closer to the people who need them most in a comfortable environment without prejudice.

“Owing to stigma and discrimination, most sex workers and men who have sex with men don’t attend public health facilities. Instead, they go to private clinics or nongovernmental organizations for condoms,” Desire explained.

Stepping up HIV prevention efforts in Zimbabwe has had impressive results. In 2015, there were 64 000 new HIV infections, down from 87 000 in 2005 and 220 000 in 1992. However, HIV prevalence among sex workers remains extremely high—at more than 57% in 2015.

“Since I started working as a peer educator I have seen what importance the clinic has in a city like Victoria Falls, where we see a high demand for our services,” Desire explained.

Victoria Falls is a tourist destination, a transit town between Zimbabwe and Zambia and a major truck stop. On average, the clinic sees about 35 female sex workers, 10 to 15 male sex workers and 45 to 50 truck drivers a week.

Desire is most proud of his outreach and community mobilization work, which builds on a strong community empowerment foundation for sex workers and men who have sex with men. “What I want is for everyone to keep themselves healthy,” he said.

Zimbabwe is taking a leading role in efforts to increase HIV prevention across the region. On 23 and 24 March, Zimbabwe will host a regional expert meeting on revitalizing HIV prevention in the eastern and southern Africa region at Victoria Falls. The meeting will seek to set national HIV prevention targets as part of the implementation of the 2016 United Nations Political Declaration on Ending AIDS. UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director Luiz Loures will be among the attendees of the meeting.

“This meeting will be an excellent opportunity for partners from across the region to come together, to develop capacity, to create, replicate and scale-up effective programmes to advance efforts towards ending the AIDS epidemic in eastern and southern Africa,” said Mr Loures.

UNAIDS continues to advocate strongly for the scale-up of HIV prevention and is working with countries to ensure that 90% of people in high HIV prevalence countries, including Zimbabwe, who are at risk of HIV infection are reached by comprehensive HIV prevention services, as outlined in the 2016 United Nations Political Declaration on Ending AIDS.