SHIP

Today is #WorldAIDSDay, and the theme for 2025 is “Overcoming Disruption, Transforming the AIDS Response.”

Though the year was marked with various disruptions and challenges, the full commitment of our SHIP crew and our partners secured our capacity to continuously provide essential healthcare services. Even with a long and tough course ahead still, we at SHIP strive even more to navigate, adapt, and transform in providing quality care to those who need it most.

This World AIDS Day, let’s remember the loved ones we lost, uplift the lives of those living with HIV, and even further unite in the community in our AIDS response, to #EndAIDS by 2030.

Join us today, through the rest of the week, and through our efforts to share HIV information and awareness, eliminate HIV stigma and discrimination, reach people for necessary HIV services with the SAIL Clinics, SHIP TelePrEP, and all our programs, and continue to save and improve lives.

At the Regional Forum on Long-Acting PrEP this 21-22nd November in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, SHIP joined regional partners in strengthening HIV prevention options across Southeast Asia. The forum brought together policymakers, researchers, providers, and community organizations to review current evidence on oral PrEP and outline strategies for introducing long-acting prevention methods.

From the Philippines, presenters shared updates on PrEP access, with Dr. Roland Sardan (DOH-DPCB) discussing national oral PrEP uptake and future plans for long-acting PrEP, including Lenacapavir rollout. SHIP’s MEARL Specialist, Rod Olete, presented emerging evidence on Filipinos’ preferences for long-acting PrEP and proposed a three-ecosystem implementation science approach to guide the country’s rollout.

With the support of the community and its partners, we expect a bright future for long-acting PrEP in the Philippines soon!

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Last 19th to the 20th of November, Sustained Health Initiatives of the Philippines (SHIP) joined the Asia-Pacific Chem-Use Symposium (APCS) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The APCS is a regional space dedicated to aligning strategies and co-creating solutions for chemsex-related health, rights, and harm reduction.

A key highlight was the UNAIDS–UNODC joint session, which tackled policies and guidelines shaping safer, more inclusive harm reduction responses. SHIP’s MEARL Specialist, Rod Olete, was invited to speak on intersectionality, emphasizing how identities, social class, and syndemic factors influence chemsex vulnerability and access to care. Mr. Olete also introduced a person-centered chemsex care cascade framework that incorporates these intersectional experiences to guide more responsive programming.

Our great thanks to the APCS 2025, and we hope to continue our part of shaping a stronger, more effective regional response to chem-use!