Helena Nangombe is a community expert who has worked with adolescent girls and young women on HIV and SRHR-related matters for more than 15 years. Leveraging her lived experience as a woman living with HIV, Helena initiated awareness-raising events on HIV and the needs of girls and young women, including stigma and discrimination, within communities.  In 2017, she founded the “Young Women Empowerment Network“,  a grassroots organization to empower and improve the well-being and living conditions of adolescent girls and young women living with and at risk of HIV in rural North Namibia.  

As a community-based person, Helena had an opportunity to facilitate the set-up of a community board as part of ACT-A, to understand better and address the challenges faced by communities affected by COVID-19 and living with long-COVID.  

Helena serves on different boards and committees, which include being a civil society member of the International Steering Committee of the Robert Carr Fund, engaged in strategic direction, and Chair of the Aidsfonds Paediatric HIV Advisory Panel.  As assistant coordinator of the Sam Nujoma Multi-purpose Centre, Helena continues to work with the communities of adolescent girls and young women to ensure the availability of correct information and to support girls in making informed decisions on HIV prevention, sexual and reproductive health, and the right and management of sexual and gender-based violence.