Chris Lemoh was born in Wollongong, Australia. He grew up in Australia, the United Kingdom and Sierra Leone. He moved back to Australia in 1987 to complete his secondary education in Hobart, Tasmania, where he went on to study medicine.

Chris currently works as a physician, based at Monash Health (Dandenong Hospital), where he specialises in infectious diseases, general internal medicine and refugee health. In 2014 he was awarded a PhD in Medicine. His doctoral thesis concerned HIV in Victoria’s African communities.

Chris is a former member of the Board of Directors for the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations, the peak national organisation representing individuals and communities affected by HIV/AIDS.

Mobile: +61 414 269 806

Belthrand Habiyakare was born in Rwanda where his parents had been refugees since 1972 from Burundi. He attended primary and part of the secondary school in Rwanda , but was interrupted by the well-publicized 1994 genocide. He then spent 13 years as a refugee in Tanzania before relocating to Australia in 2007. While in Tanzania, Belthrand trained and worked as a nurse in various healthcare settings in the refugee camps from 1995 to 1999. After a series of on-job training in relation to diagnosing and treating diseases, Belthrand worked as a nurse practitioner from 2000 to 2007. During this time, Belthrand also trained as an HIV/AIDS counselor (voluntary HIV testing), and then as a facilitator on prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV. He was the focal person for the HIV/AIDS program in two refugee camps in Ngara Tanzania. Tasks involved coordinating counselors and community service staff involved in the facility-based, follow-ups, and home-based care services, for people living with HIV/AIDS. Belthrand completed VCE in 2009 at Chisholm Institute of TAFE in Dandenong, and a bachelor degree in biomedical science (honors) in 2014 from Victoria University, in Melbourne. Belthrand is currently in his second and last year of the master of Public health at La Trobe University and works as an Interpreter and translator since 2007.

Chiedza has extensive experience in health promotion and currently works in community health. She is passionate about the health and human rights, particularly those of women and girls.

Hope Mathumbu holds a Master’s Degree in International Public Health and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies. She is passionate about intersectional feminism, human rights and community development. Hope has worked and volunteered widely in various sectors, driven by her belief in the Black South African humanist philosophy of Ubuntu. Hope is also a volunteer community radio announcer on 3CR 855 AM.

Bernadette Okoth was born in Nairobi, Kenya. Spent most of her early years in Nairobi, completing her secondary schooling Kenya.
Bernadette moved to Melbourne Australia in 2005 to attend Latrobe University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Health Science (Public Health). Bernadette currently works in the area of infectious disease, specifically with the CALD HIV community in Melbourne and Geelong area.