Reflecting on 2024: A Year of Momentum

As we welcome in 2025, it’s a moment to celebrate our 2024 achievements and look forward to new opportunities. Here we reflect on some highlights from last year in line with our strategic goals.

Holistic Support

We expanded our direct psychosocial support and advocacy through Chiva staff members working directly with clinic teams in UK paediatric and youth HIV clinics around the UK. This enabled us to help ensure that holistic needs are met alongside health care so that young people and their families have easy access to wider support which can be critical for their wellbeing.

We’re proud to have built a strong core programme of support available to young people and their families across the UK. Last year this included:

Families’ Weekend – We brought together 20 families (60 individuals) in a weekend residential to explore what it means to live well with HIV as a family, share strategies, and use creative activities to explore family life stories together.

Regional Peer Meetups – We organised smaller group meet-ups which provide social support, HIV support and education.

Hardship Support– We provided essentials like food and formula milk for infants and covered clinic travel costs for those facing hardship.

Freedom 2 Be (F2B) Camp– Last year marked 15 years of this annual week-long camp for children and young people with HIV aged 11-17, with the highest attendance in many years (88 participants).

Blueprint Programme – A group of young adults (aged 18-25) were supported through one-to-one coaching, online sessions, day meet-ups and residentials focused on living well with HIV into adulthood.

Art is Key – A week-long residential was delivered with professional artists, empowering young people aged 17- 25 to explore experiences of living with HIV and create through the arts and animation.

Youth Participation– The Chiva Youth Committee worked through the year on HIV awareness campaigns and resource development and influenced the direction that Chiva is taking in its work. They also got involved in research and led the development of a new clinic experience survey launching in 2025.

Youth involvement opportunities have expanded in all project areas and we are very proud of the range of opportunities young people have to stay involved with the organisation as they grow up.

HIV Awareness and Stigma Reduction

We relaunched an education campaign with an “HIV-Friendly School” programme around World AIDS Day and expanded our reach launching on TikTok, focussing on youth developed content to raise awareness.

Our website has had an update and redesign for a cleaner look and simpler navigation and we produced two new short films about F2B camp which are both shortlisted for awards:

Safe With Me and Freedom To Be: 15 Years of Chiva Camp

We also stepped away from X (Twitter) in alignment with our values.

Work with Professionals, Research, and Advocacy

Through the Chiva Steering Group’s work, Chiva has ensured that clinical guidelines used in the NHS have regular professional peer review and are updated. In addition, 2024 saw another successful Chiva annual conference for professionals, held in Birmingham.

Advocacy efforts included campaigning for free formula milk for infants of mothers living with HIV and leading the development of a new service specification for NHS paediatric HIV services.

Looking Ahead to 2025

In 2025, we will be focussing on scaling support for young adults, addressing emerging needs, focussing on mental health support and continuing to advocate for policy and service development which meets the needs of young people.

Our ongoing focus on measuring our impact and engaging with research will help us to further develop evidence-based practices and ensure service development is led by an understanding of the key issues and needs identified by young people.

Thank you

The success of 2024 has been a team and community effort. Thank you to our staff, volunteers, young people, families and partners. Thank you for your dedication and trust. Together, we are helping to ensure children and young people living with HIV can thrive without barriers or stigma.

In 2025 we will no doubt be facing new challenges as well as opportunities and the passion and resolve that defined this past year will see us through again.

Wishing you all a healthy and joyful new year.

Amanda Ely, Chiva CEO.