Mobilising Momentum for the Global Fund Eight Replenishment

Ruth Morgan Thomas (she/her) has been involved in sex work for 40 years — as a fulltime sex worker, as an academic researcher looking at HIV related risks in the sex industry and as a sex workers’ rights advocate campaigning for, developing and maintaining services and support for sex workers within a human rights and labour framework. Ruth was one of the founding members of the Scottish Prostitutes Education Project estabished in 1989 by sex workers for sex workers in Edinburgh, which she managed for 20 years. She was a founding member of the Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP), which formed in 1992. In 2012, Ruth coordinated the Sex Worker Freedom Festival — the alternative IAC2012 event for sex workers and their allies in protest at the legal travel restrictions imposed upon sex workers by the US government

Marijke Wijnroks has served as Head of the Strategy, Investment and Impact Division since January 2023. She served as Chief of Staff at the Global Fund from 2013 to 2022. During that time, she also served as interim Executive Director from June 2017 to February 2018, as interim Head of Human Resources from September 2021 to February 2022, and interim Head of the Strategy, Investment and Impact Division from April to December 2022. She also oversees the Catalytic Investments Office and acts as Chair of the Grants Approval Committee. With over 30 years of experience in global health and development, Wijnroks served one term on the Global Fund Board as a Board Member and two terms as an alternate Board Member, as well as for two years as Vice Chair of the Board’s Ethics Committee.

Rachel Ong has been the Regional Coordinator of GFAN Asia-Pacific since 2016, and currently serves as a co-facilitator of the C20 GHWG and member of the C20 Steering Committee. She was formerly the Constituency Focal Point of the Communities Delegation from 2009 to 2020 and has occupied various governance and leadership positions of Global Fund processes and mechanisms. She is from Singapore and has worked across the Asia-Pacific region since 1999 on youth and gender advocacy and has held various leadership and governance positions in regional and global community/civil society organisations and international institutions. She was based in Beijing, China from 2004 – 2008 as Project Manager of Positive Art Workshop. Rachel holds a double Business Degree in Marketing and Media Management from Edith Cowan University, Australia and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore.

Françoise Vanni heads the External Relations and Communications Division. The division includes four departments: Communications, Donor Relations, Political and Civil Society Advocacy, and Private Sector Engagement.
Vanni has more than 25 years of leadership experience in resource mobilization and advocacy, and extensive field experience in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. Early in her career, Vanni served as country representative in Angola and in Cuba for Médecins du Monde. For eight years, she served as executive director of a NGO in France called Agir Ici, which she transformed into Oxfam France. Vanni served as communications chief for UNICEF in Mexico, before serving Oxfam GB as a regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, based in Mexico. Later she was Oxfam’s campaigns and policy director based in the United Kingdom. Most recently, Vanni was director of external relations and communications for the United Nations Relief
and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Abou is the Regional Director of Kripa Foundation, an organization working on Drug use, HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Tuberculosis and is based in the North-Eastern part of India. He has more than two decades of working experience in the field of Drugs and HIV. Abou is the founding member of the Indian Drug Users’ Forum (IDUF) and has served as its President from 2012 till 2018. He still serves the IDUF as President for the current period 2020-22. IDUF got a legal identity under his leadership and got recognized as the National Drug Users’ Network in India.

Currently Abou serves as the Chairperson of the board of Network of Asian People Who Use Drugs (NAPUD).

Francis Joseph, based in Bangkok, TH, is currently a Regional Coordinator at Network of Asian People who Use Drugs (NAPUD), bringing experience from previous roles at UNAIDS Regional Support Team Asia Pacific, ANPUD and India HIV/AIDS Alliance. Francis Joseph holds a 2003 – 2006 Master of Arts (M.A.) in Sociology from Annamalai University. With a robust skill set that includes HIV prevention, NGOs, Reseach, Program Management, Research and more, Francis Joseph contributes valuable insights to the industry.