Beatrice Were is a Social Scientist and development worker with experience in HIV/AIDS programme management, policy analysis and human rights work with critical focus on women’s rights for the last 13 years. She has worked in direct service delivery, policy and advocacy work, research, training, building partnerships and programme management. Her work has contributed tremendously to raising awareness on the rights of women and HIV. In her innovative career she founded the National Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (NACWOLA) which operates in 25 districts in Uganda with over 40,000 members.

At her work place Ms. Were has broken the silence on HIV/AIDS by being the only staff member in ActionAid International Uganda who speaks about her HIV status in the work place as a way of reaching out to those who may be infected and help those who are not yet infected escape HIV infection. She has spearheaded the formulation of an HIV/AIDS workplace policy and implementation of workplace programmes for staff and ActionAid partners.

Through her advocacy work at global and local levels, Ms. Were has worked with several organizations and individuals on key HIV/AIDS and human rights issues. Key among these are Stephen Lewis (former UN Special envoy on HIV/AIDS for Africa), Center for Gender Equity (CHANGE, Treatment Action Campaign South Africa (TAC) Human Rights Watch and Uganda Women’s network among others.

Currently Ms. Were is a member of the Steering working group of the HIV Center Columbia University New York, USA. She is also Co-chair of the Community Planning Committee of 16^th World AIDS Conference, Mexico, 2008.

Ms. Were has been honored by many organizations both local and international for her exemplary work on HIV/AIDS and human rights. The most recent is the prestigious International Human Rights Defender of the Year 2005 and 2006 by Human Rights Watch.