Barbara Kemigisa
Founder Pillpower UgandaBarbara Kemigisa is a Ugandan HIV Activist and Motivational Speaker living with HIV. As a victim of sexual abuse, teenage pregnancy and rejection, she uses her story to inspire, mentor and engage children and youth infected and vulnerable to HIV to create a safe, healthy and empowered generation.
Kemigisa is the Founder of Pill Power Uganda, an organization that enables vulnerable children and youth enjoy a safe and friendly environment for personal growth, peer interaction and capacity building in both interpersonal and economic skills like farming, recycling, art and craft, music dance and drama, community service among others.
Using her Victory crown made of ARV bottles and left over pills, Kemigisa inspires girls living with HIV that with good adherence to treatment, they too can achieve their dreams, get married and have HIV negative babies just like her.
Kemigisa has presented her work and innovation of recycling ARV bottles at the 2015 international conference on recycling and waste management in Singapore, IAS conference in Paris, AIDS 2018 in Amsterdam. It also won her a chance to study civic leadership at Wagner college New York City as a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow.
She has inspired over 50,000 youth through different platforms like media, live audiences, Facebook both local and international and trained 400 children and adolescents through Pill power Uganda. Her recycling drive has been adopted by 6 youth groups in Uganda , hence reducing the dangers of plastic ARV bottles to the environment.
All photos are courtesy of speakers or their affiliations unless otherwise indicated.