When Dr. Caroline Ryan became the CDC Country Director for Eswatini in 2015, the small kingdom in Southern Africa (then known as Swaziland) had the highest rate of HIV in the world – 27% of the adult population. But there was reason to be optimistic.

The following year, a study showed that the number of new infections in the country had been nearly halved and the number of people who were on antiretrovirals that were virally suppressed had doubled.

Kenneth Mugwanya, an assistant professor of global health at the University of Washington School of Public Health, and his research team have received a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to test the effectiveness of integrating methods of HIV prevention into sexual and reproductive health services for women in Kenya.

Jennifer Velloza spent a year crisscrossing the grass-covered plains and sloping hills of rural Swaziland, dividing her time among ten medical clinics in this small southern African country. Here, nearly one in four people have HIV — and that rate is even higher among women.

As a study manager for Doctors Without Borders, Velloza saw many pregnant and postpartum women struggle to get the HIV testing and treatment they needed, because they were also suffering from sexual trauma, depression or anxiety.

The International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) made UW history when its country offices in Haiti and India transitioned into independent organizations. This is the first time a UW-led organization has transitioned into an international one that is locally owned.