Created in partnership with and funded by ViiV Healthcare.   

Doreen Moraa Moracha was born with HIV, but her diagnosis went undiscovered until she was eight years old. These were frightening times for a small girl growing up in Kenya, defined by frequent illness and long hospital stays. But these early experiences made Moracha into who she is today—an educator, advocate, and a tireless voice for everyone impacted by HIV, especially women and young people. 

Brilliant minds are breaking through barriers, driving innovations and progress that are transforming the lives of all those impacted by HIV and bringing us closer to ending the epidemic. These are The Unstoppables, and Doreen is one of the people leading the way.   

Growing up in the shadows of stigmatisation and misinformation 

Even after her diagnosis, she didn’t learn the truth for five years. Her parents were determined to shield her from any HIV stigma, wherever it came from.  

“If anybody caught wind that we were a family living with HIV, we would basically move,” she says. 

It was only when Moracha was 13 and had begun antiretroviral therapy (ART) that she finally learned the truth. 

The secrecy continued when she went to boarding school, and her classmates would see her taking medicines. “Because I was not allowed to tell anyone that I was living with HIV, I would tell them it was for a heart condition,” she says. She knew what the alternative looked like—relatives who gave her separate utensils and disinfected her clothes.  

Adulthood brought its own complications. Exhausted by the lifelong commitment to medication, Moracha stopped taking her ART for two years, switching to a herbal remedy she had seen advertised on television by a traditional herbalist in Tanzania. 

Moracha learned the hard way what HIV misinformation can cost you.  Stopping treatment led to severe physical pain and infections, including pneumonia, that forced her back into the hospital. She went back on her ART and hasn’t looked back since.  

Finding her voice and becoming an HIV activist 

Her path to activism started almost by accident. During a 2015 internship at a government wellness unit, encouraging others to get tested made her realize her own story was worth telling. So she emailed it to a journalist, who published it online.  

The story took off. Moracha deactivated her Facebook account in a panic when the story went viral. But a flood of emails from people living in isolation changed her mind. She returned to social media and hasn’t been quiet about her status since—becoming one of the most recognizable public advocates in the HIV space.  

She read accounts of people hiding their status from their spouses—like the man who took his medication in his car before entering his home. “It showed me that a lot of people are living with HIV and are leading a lonely journey.”  

Fearlessly challenging misconceptions and shaping global policy 

Today, Moracha uses her public profile to challenge the 1980s-era fear of HIV that still persists in many African communities.  She frequently faces online trolls who dispute her story, claiming it is impossible to have been born with HIV and look as healthy as she does. She doesn’t ignore them—she uses every interaction as a chance to educate, pointing to a whole generation of “HIV-born” survivors as proof of how far treatment has come.   

This fearless approach has driven her global HIV collaborations, including developing and championing Youth Hub in partnership with the International AIDS Society for young people impacted by HIV.  She currently represents Africa in the NGO Delegation to the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board, liaising with member states to shape policies that better reflect the experiences of those living with HIV and reduce inequalities. 

Through her long-standing partnership with ViiV Healthcare and the HIV in View campaign, which for the first time showcased the true picture and experiences of people living with HIV, she continues to push back against the stigma that still defines the condition for too many people.  

Championing global awareness and equal access to innovative treatments  

Her work is deeply personal, influenced by the loss of her younger brother, who died at the age of three from complications associated with advanced HIV disease in an era when treatment was not widely available in Kenya. “He would have survived if there was medication,” she reflects. That loss informs how she thinks about newer treatment and prevention options like long-acting solutions, which she believes can play a major role in combating stigma. 

Moracha uses her popular YouTube channel, I am a Beautiful Story, and other social media platforms to discuss new research and approaches to HIV that she has discovered while attending medical congresses. It’s a way of bringing the latest science to a wider audience—and of showing people with HIV that their diagnosis doesn’t have to define them.  

“I want to de-stigmatize the HIV diagnosis for people, especially when it comes to self-stigma, and to show people that you are not your diagnosis, you are more than that.” 

It’s a message she hopes will reach the next generation of young people living with and affected by HIV—that the diagnosis is not the whole story, and never has to be. 

Discover more stories from The Unstoppables and learn about how innovation has shaped progress in HIV, or visit ViiV Healthcare to explore their commitment to ending the HIV epidemic.