They live with stigma and HIV. Hard-to-reach, marginalized communities find compassion and hope through a 45-year partnership between UM and the University of Nairobi. Come along as Chancellor Anne Mahon visits the heart of health equity.

We enter a large community centre in Nairobi that is packed with over 400 sex workers sitting in white plastic chairs. It’s loud, chaotic and friendly. A few children are in their mother’s arms. A handful of women are falling asleep, having worked all night yet staying up to come to the meeting. These are research subjects in a UM study on whether aspirin can aid in the prevention of HIV. The women are here for a semi-annual research update. Keith Fowke [BSc(Hons)/88, PhD/95], head of UM’s Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Department and the principal investigator in this study, leads our UM group up the center aisle to the front stage. He is a kind-hearted Winnipegger who is smiley, humble and has been travelling to Kenya for almost 40 years, since he was a PhD student at UM.