Dagmar Hanisch

Dagmar headed up the initial team that begun implementing the ALAFA programme in 2006. She later became the project's director of policy and prevention, a post she held until she moved in Ghana in April 2010.

"It is amazing to me to look back at out very humble beginnings in a back room four years ago, and compare this to the industry-wide comprehensive programme which ALAFA has become. A lot of people and organisations have contributed to this, and I'm glad to have been part of it," she says.

Born in Dusseldorf, Dagmar worked and lived in Southern Africa for more than 10 years. After completing her MBA in Muenster, she spent six years in the commercial sector in Germany, ending up at Toshiba. While studying, she spent nine months in Douala, Cameroon – where she got her first taste of Africa.

In 2000 Dagmar made the big shift into development work, taking up a post in Botswana with the German development agency DED. Two significant events changed her life while she was in Botswana. Dagmar was paired with a local counterpart who revealed she was HIV positive. At first Dagmar was shocked by the news.

“I became her treatment buddy, which helped me understand on a personal level what living with the virus really means. We started HIV work at our workplace, and helped the village where we worked to get an HIV counselling centre going together with a local NGO. “I realised I needed to study the matter, so I enrolled for the post-grad diploma in HIV/AIDS Management at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa.”

The second big event in Botswana was meeting Clive Ashby from the UK, also an HIV and AIDS professional. After they married they moved to work in Lesotho until the rellocated to Ghana, where they continue to work in the HIV and AIDS field.