Jyoti Dhawale is an Indian-based HIV advocate and changemaker, who began working with The Well Project in 2010 as a blogger for A Girl Like Me and joined the Community Advisory Board (CAB) in 2014. In her role as a CAB member, she travels extensively to most parts of India, holding community programs, talk shows in corporate sectors, and awareness programs in classrooms. In her role as Global Ambassador for The Well Project, she will build upon these efforts and facilitate the translation of and disseminate of our fact sheets in Hindi. A counsellor focused on HIV health and living, she works with doctors to educate and empower people living with HIV about how they can take better care of themselves, with a focus on helping them understand lab reports and medicines. Jyoti seeks to eradicate stigma and make the world a better place for people living with HIV.
Jyoti's work has been noticed by a number of NGOs and organizations, which have her to be a visiting member. She has been celebrated and has received many awards, the most prominent of which include Karmaveer Chakra (from iCongo and United Nations) and Bharat Prerna Award, which honors the differently abled (Jyoti suffers from bilateral sensorineural severe to profound hearing loss and while hearing aids enable her to hear, she relies on lip-reading to follow conversation). Her latest award is the APCOM Hero Award 2020, which she received in Bangkok as a Community Ally.
Jyoti has been twice divorced by negative partners, making her very aware of the challenges that HIV can create in the marriage relationship, but it has not diminished her spirits. Her life experience is her biggest teacher from which she reflects and imparts knowledge to those she counsels. She is currently writing her autobiography, which may be made into a biopic.
