16 | Acquisition International, Non-Profit Organisation Awards 2025 Best Stigma-Free Health Access Movement 2025 – Utah & HIV & Hepatitis C Testing & Support Organisation of the Year 2025 – Utah Individuals living with HIV and hepatitis C continue to face relentless stigma and discrimination in healthcare settings – an invisible barrier that often prevents them from seeking the care and resources essential for survival. This systemic neglect can have devastating consequences, sometimes resulting in avoidable loss of life. Hope on TTaPP is an organisation born from this pain, providing stigma-free healthcare for HIV and hepatitis C positive individuals. As Hope on TTaPP is named in the Non-Profit Organisation Awards, we heard more from Founding Partner and Executive Director, Sequan Kolibas. Contact: Sequan Kolibas Company: Hope on TTaPP Web Address: www.hopeonttapp.com Sequan Kolibas received a HIV positive diagnosis in 2013 and knows first-hand the self-stigmatising thoughts and shame that often follow a diagnosis. For the first six years that followed the diagnosis, Sequan lived in fear and silence – enduring discrimination and stigmatising treatment from medical providers, especially once they had learned of her history with injection drug use. Alongside this, Sequan heard countless horror stories from others in her community, detailing their negative experiences with providers when trying to seek out medical attention. These interactions had left these individuals feeling helpless, dejected, and devalued. Tragically, some members of her community eventually passed away, as a direct result of their untreated conditions. “It angered me to know that these people – who were kind and intelligent and had powerful stories – were not being listened to and not offered the same treatment and medications – if they were offered medications at all!” she shared. “Once I got into my recovery, it became my mission to be the voice of my community, to be the voice that would be listened to and the voice that would not leave until it was heard.” On a mission, Sequan disrupted the medical landscape by challenging providers to view each and every person who walked through their doors as an equal, deserving human being. She decided to start Hope on TTaPP, a non-profit organisation specialising in providing stigma-free healthcare for HIV and hepatitis C positive individuals, with TTaPP standing for Testing, Treatment, and Peer-led Prevention. Sequan drives Hope on TTaPP in collaboration with team member Steffy Perry. Delivering services to nine counties across Utah, the pair are committed to normalising the conversation surrounding drug user health and sexual health – including the infectious diseases that can stem from those choices. By talking about HIV and hepatitis C and putting faces behind these conditions, Hope on TTaPP is eliminating the public’s fear of talking about them. “We aren’t people of high-status corporate backgrounds,” said Sequan. “This allows us to construct trust-filled relationships with our clients and opens the door for honest and relatable conversations. Both my employee and I have lived experience that helps our clients relate to and trust us, so our community already knows that we are a safe space because we are one of them.” The biggest challenge that Hope on TTaPP faces today is how uneducated the general public is about HIV and hepatitis C, and the misinformation that has become widespread as a result. Shifting national priorities has also presented new obstacles – impacting access to vital resources in terms of medication, testing, and funding. Navigating this evolving landscape is a daily reality for Hope on TTaPP, in its mission to protect global health and expand access to care in a time of increasing uncertainty. Despite the pressing challenges, Hope on TTaPP remains more determined than ever. This year, the organisation reached a significant milestone – having successfully cured 100 people of their hepatitis C. This is an exceptional achievement for the team at Hope on TTaPP, who have not only saved the lives of 100 people, but have also helped to improve the quality of those lives and the lives of their families. The organisation has also recently partnered with the Utah Department of Corrections, to address the high prevalence of hepatitis C within the state’s incarcerated populations – a key step to achieving micro-elimination. Alongside this, Sequan told us that she has held training sessions across the country, teaching healthcare providers how to have successful interactions with people who use drugs. “I want medically underserved communities to be able to engage in their own healthcare with providers who treat them with passion and acceptance,” she explained. “The positive feedback I receive confirms we are on the right path. It also confirms that stigma is alive and well - that all have our own biases, but unfortunately a good majority of us don’t even recognise that we have them. It takes someone raising the conversation to open our eyes to it.” Hope on TTaPP
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