Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism

10/09/2026

LEN is the world’s first six-monthly HIV prevention injection and is near perfect at preventing HIV through s*x.

But your first dose is more than just a jab.

At the clinic, you’ll have an HIV test, take two tablets and get two injections.

Here are the first 5 steps on that journey.

10/09/2026

Satellites can map a flood and hospitals can count the injured. But the numbers can't tell you what it feels like to watch your crops vanish under water and spend months wondering how you'll feed your family.

That's what Coulibaly faced in Burkina Faso — and it's exactly the kind of experience the Wema project set out to capture.

Across four African countries, 37 people who lived through extreme weather became paid community researchers, turning their stories into evidence and helping shape what scientists study next.

Across South Africa, Burkina Faso, Kenya and Mozambique, 37 people who lived through major floods are turning their own experiences into evidence. Here’s the project rethinking who counts as an expert on climate change and mental health.

10/09/2026

Across Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mozambique and South Africa, 37 community members who lived through major floods and cyclones have spent the past year working as paid researchers on the Wema project, which studies how the extreme weather driven by climate change affects mental health in Africa.

Using a method called digital storytelling, they turned their own experiences into short, illustrated films: true accounts of collapsing walls, flooded fields and frightening nights waiting for the rain to stop. Then they did something most research never allows for: they analysed those stories themselves, setting the priorities for future policy and research.

Surveys can count the anxious and the displaced but they struggle to capture what it means to sleep with the windows open, every rainy season, listening for the next wall to crack.

This is a different way of doing science: one that treats community members as collaborators, not just subjects.

Read the story by South African researchers Astrid Treffry-Goatley and Gill Black.

Across South Africa, Burkina Faso, Kenya and Mozambique, 37 people who lived through major floods are turning their own experiences into evidence. Here’s the project rethinking who counts as an expert on climate change and mental health.

09/09/2026

At Bhekisisa’s recent LEN media workshop, journalists found out more about the science and modelling behind the roll-out, with HE²RO’s Lise Jamieson explaining the difference it could make if enough people take LEN.

09/09/2026

Countries are cracking down on energy drinks. The industry may not go quietly.

Find out in Nicole Ludolph’s pick for today’s , from The Examination.

https://mailchi.mp/bhekisisa.org/8480782-15074338-nb3qcrn17v-15076230

09/09/2026

A s*x worker losing clients while she waits. A student who tried 3 times. A pregnant woman tired of pills. A trans woman who values privacy.

We met 4 LEN users at our media workshop. Now they tell us what getting SA’s new HIV prevention jab is really like.

Mia Malan and Ida Jooste break it down in today’s newsletter.



https://mailchi.mp/bhekisisa.org/8480782-15074338-nb3qcrn17v-15076230

08/09/2026

What's it like to get an HIV prevention injection that lasts for 6 months? We asked a trans woman, who received LEN at a clinic in Soweto, about her experiences.

Find out more: https://bhekisisa.org/special-reports/lenacapavir/2026-09-08-meet-4-people-who-got-the-hiv-prevention-jab/

08/09/2026

What’s it actually like to get South Africa’s new six-monthly HIV prevention injection?

We asked four people who have done it.

A s*x worker tells us why waiting at a clinic can mean losing desperately needed income. A law student had to make three trips before she finally got her injections. A pregnant woman explains why she chose LEN after finding out she was expecting. And a trans woman who took daily HIV prevention pills for nine years explains why an injection gives her something pills couldn’t: more privacy.

They also tell us about the bumps LEN can leave under the skin — and whether they’ll go back for their next injections.

Meet four of South Africa’s early LEN users and hear about the roll-out in their own words.

Four South Africans from groups the government wants to reach with the six-monthly HIV prevention injection, lenacapavir (LEN), tell us why they chose the shot, what happened at the clinic and whether they’ll go back for another dose.

08/09/2026

Almost 55 000 HIV-negative people in South Africa have already used the six-monthly HIV prevention injection, lenacapavir (LEN).

But roll-out numbers tell us only part of the story.

What happens when someone actually walks into a state clinic and asks for LEN?

We spoke to four people who have done exactly that: a s*x worker, a university student, a pregnant woman and a trans woman.

Their experiences show why a twice-a-year injection can matter in very different ways.

For one, hours spent waiting at a clinic can mean losing clients and income. For another, a daily pill is one more thing to remember between lectures, studying and work. Another travels frequently and worries about leaving her pills behind. And for one woman, an injection offers privacy that a bottle of pills cannot.

Their experiences also reveal some of the early wrinkles in South Africa’s roll-out: long queues, repeat clinic visits and the bumps LEN can leave under the skin.

Here are their stories, in their own words via Mia Malan and Ida Jooste.

Four South Africans from groups the government wants to reach with the six-monthly HIV prevention injection, lenacapavir (LEN), tell us why they chose the shot, what happened at the clinic and whether they’ll go back for another dose.

04/09/2026

At the Africa Health Research Institute, scientists like Collins Iwuji are exploring what can be done to protect the mental health of those who are victims of the world’s increasing number of storms and floods.

They’re getting people to make drawings and voice recordings of their experiences — something called digital storytelling — to uncover trauma among flood survivors.

Counsellors are present every step along the way.

Women like Nonhlanhla Mthembu and Ntokozo Ncwane from Durban’s outskirts share what they’ve lived through: water pouring into homes, roofs ripped off and panic that returns every time it rains, or thunder rumbles. Many have no access to therapy.

But storytelling, in their own words and culture, is also becoming a form of healing.

Watch our full TV episode now: https://tinyurl.com/survivingfloods