Name: Yana Panfilova
Age: 19
Education: Student of Academy of Labor, Social Work and Tourism in Kyiv
Profession: HIV activist, founder of Teenergizer, a youth movement
Did you know? Panfilova spent the first three years of her life in an orphanage.
When Yana Panfilova was 10, her mother told her: “You have HIV.”
Panfilova’s mother, a former drug addict, was infected with HIV. She gave birth to her daughter before she knew she had the virus and passed it to her child. Panfilova’s mother wasn’t capable of taking care of her due to drug use, so she was taken to an orphanage.
When Panfilova was 3, her mother quit drugs and took her home. Today, mother and daughter are HIV activists. Panfilova has become a voice for young people living with HIV. Three years ago she founded Teenergizer, a UNICEF-funded organization.
One of Panfilova’s biggest achievements was to speak at the United Nations General Assembly in June. “It feels strange even calling it an achievement, because I was having so much fun while doing it,” she says.
Panfilova, 19, is energetic. She giggles, twitches and twirls her fingers in her curly hair when talking. She is also ambitious. “I wish I had achieved more by my age,” she says. Her millennial, “nothing-is-impossible” attitude is reflected in Teenergizer. The organization’s online platform boasts that it was “created by teenagers, for teenagers.” It offers opportunities to network, write blogs, discover educational opportunities and, in general, live better with HIV.
According to Panfilova, the problem with HIV positive teenagers is that they get bored taking pills every day at a certain time. To make it fun to stick to the therapy regime, Teenergizer is developing a smartphone app that mixes discipline with play. When the tasks on the schedule are completed, the app awards users points and prizes.
Panfilova takes six pills a day to keep the virus suppressed and to support her immune system. The therapy reduces the chances she will transmit the virus. “Even if my blood gets in someone else’s right now, there is little chance that person would get HIV,” Panfilova says.
She knows it, but many people, still mired in myths, don’t. When her mother revealed the secret to Panfilova, it came with an order: don’t tell anyone. But she rushed to tell her best friend. “She didn’t take it well,” Panfilova recalls. “She was crying, saying ‘How could you, we’ve been eating together!’ She was sure she had got HIV from me.”
To draw attention to myths about how HIV spreads, Panfilova in 2015 stood in Taras Shevchenko Park in Kyiv with a banner that read, “I’ve got HIV. Give me a hug for support.” The result was surprising: She barely stood there for a minute without getting a hug.
“You can talk about HIV a lot,” Panfilova says of her activism, “but a personal example is what can really change people’s attitude.”
