Silvia is Positively UK’s CEO, a national charity lead and run by people with HIV, which aims to enable people living with HIV to improve their health and quality of life. Silvia believes that a key tool in defeating HIV stigma is for people with HIV to be heard and visible. She firstly joined Positively UK in 1999 as a volunteer in the organisation Community Development Team providing treatment information to women attending HIV clinics. Soon she became a staff member leading on support for women with drug and alcohol issues and providing outreach in Holloway prison. Since then Silvia has worked in many roles as a manager, from setting up PozFem, the first national women’s network, developing new activists through the Taking Part Project and the recent Changing Perceptions campaign. Silvia has also represented people with HIV on the British HIV Association (BHIVA) board, between 2008 and 2011, chaired the UK CAB, and represented the Global Network of People Living with HIV at the United Nations; she currently sits on World Health Organisation advisory board on women and HIV. Silvia. Silvia has been living with HIV for 24 years.
