Shaun Mellors

Shaun Mellors is a global citizen. He has more than 25 years’ experience working in HIV at the national, regional and international level and has spent the last 30 years travelling an intense and varied journey living with HIV. He was one of the first people to go public about his HIV status in South Africa in the mid 80’s and he founded the National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS (NAPWA). He has advocated for the rights and inclusion of people living with HIV on various platforms and has been actively engaged in shaping and defining programmes that address the needs and priorities of people living with HIV to ensure that they are relevant and have impact. He has confronted, and continues to confront, issues of self-stigma in his own life’s journey some of which have been perpetuated by his HIV diagnosis, and it is through this process that he is able to understand, advocate and be an agent for change more effectively.