[IAS + Jo Image?]
By Jyoti Dhawale
[intro?]
The Well Project posted a link in October 2025 where one can apply for a scholarship to the International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2026) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I filled it in December 2025 and in April 2026 I received an email saying I was selected!!! It took me time to believe that it was actually happening and I even had to pinch myself. Ouchie, the pain!! It was ACTUALLY happening!!! Getting to South America was an experience. Eleven hours' journey followed by 19 hours' layover in Frankfurt, and then another nine hours to Rio - the worry about my luggage (I was carrying gifts!!!), the exhaustion of travelling across continents, and finally the excitement upon landing to the country crazy about football and Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie"!!
After all these years of living openly with HIV and being involved in HIV advocacy, I was finally flying to one of the biggest HIV conferences, where 7,000 candidates applied for scholarship, 5,000 attended, amidst doctors, researchers, scientists, activists, community leaders, and people living with HIV from other parts of the world. (I met most of my social media friends I had been interacting with for 15-20 years, hugging them, can't believe it took this long to finally meet!!! Patience is sweet, Oooo!!!)
This was an emotional moment for me knowing that I was not there simply as a person living with HIV, representing The Well Project (India chapter). I was there as a woman, as an advocate, as a changemaker, as a deaf person, and as someone who has spent years turning my own journey into lived experience for others. It has been a long, long journey. From being detected HIV positive, to being divorced followed by ostracization, stigma, suffering, being in closet, to finally accepting, opening out and later taking the world by storm. I realised I was not arriving only to be the part of the conference. I was arriving at the "moment" I worked many years to reach!! I thank God for keeping me alive when I could not see a reason to keep going (I am a suicide survivor and also free from substance abuse). I thank God for giving me the strength to continue when life felt impossible. I thank God for reminding me again and again not to give up and to trust the process.
Now, standing in Rio, thousands of miles away from home, I could not help but think about how different life can look when we give it time. If I had given up all those years ago, I would never have known that one day, I would be here, attending the AIDS 2026 conference, in Brazil, under scholarship basis, looking back at my life with gratitude, instead of pain. THIS is actually my greatest takeaway from Brazil!!
(Stay tuned for Part 2 out of 5, coming up in the next few days...)
More from The Well Project on the 26th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2026)
