Building a Bridge to a Healthier World for Youth in Africa with Gilead Sciences
Dr. Summer Sitima is one of 24 siblings born to a Kenyan family in the 90s at the height of the HIV epidemic in Sub Saharan Africa. She vividly remembers the day in 1997 that she first learned one of her older sisters was living with HIV.
Still a child at the time, Summer recalls her sister’s husband pounding on the front door. In his arms, he held the frail body of her sister. She was suffering from advanced and untreated HIV that she acquired through her marriage as a teenager. Summer and her family cared for her until she passed away six weeks later.
“It forever changed my life and something shifted in my mind,” says Summer. “From that point on I became very interested in what healthcare looks like and how it can have an impact on people’s lives.”
Summer went on to become the first of her family’s 13 daughters to finish high school, and she then achieved another first when she graduated from college. She defied more odds as she remained unmarried throughout her teenage years and enrolled in medical school.
Today Summer is Gilead’s Commercial Operations Lead in South Africa, where 50% of new HIV diagnoses are in the adolescent population. In resource-limited countries in Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 25.6 million people are living with HIV and 91 million people are living with hepatitis B or C.
She credits her team’s commitment and resilience to helping erode societal and structural obstacles to reach those in the greatest need of care in the region.
“1990s era policies in parts of Africa, built upon fear-mongering and inaccurate information, means many born since 2000 have inadequate awareness of how HIV is acquired and how to access care,” Summer explains.
Gilead works with various partners to meet people where they are for testing and treatment and to raise awareness of transmission and reduce stigma. One such initiative in Nairobi trains barbers and hairdressers to become HIV educators.
“This is a space where people can find a path to care,” explains Summer, adding that “Barbershops and salons are places where conversations naturally occur, and people feel like they can trust who is speaking with them.”
Gilead also sponsors a charity run in Nairobi where the proceeds help students with the cost of medical school at the University of Nairobi. There, medical students learn about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in a fun way: As part of their education they host game nights with quizzes and also post social media messages to raise awareness about STIs. “It creates a boomerang effect as the info is more widely shared among their peers and then in turn it helps educate the community,” explains Summer.
Another innovative program centers around the simple act of tree planting. During times of extreme drought or flooding, people often can’t get to health services, making any sort of testing and treatment difficult. Summer explains how providing vegetation helps with water drainage and improves the ecosystem so people can gain better access to care services and students can get to school. “Girls are most at risk of dropping out during these periods and often become pregnant before finishing their schooling,” she says.
It’s been more than 25 years since her sister passed away, and Summer recognizes that women like her sister now have better information and access to care, in part because of the work of organizations like Gilead.
“I’m motivated every day to create new possibilities for women, like my sister,” explains Summer. “We are changing the stories of mothers, daughters, sisters, wives and young people in Africa, and around the world.”
