About us
Over its 38-year lifetime, Avert reached hundreds of millions of people around the world with inclusive and empowering information to support their sexual health choices.
Our story
Avert is an international charity that between 1986 and 2024 supported inclusive, non-judgemental information services, sponsored medical research that others refused to fund, and supported local organisations in the UK, Asia and Africa with funds to support key HIV prevention, care and treatment services.
Following the adoption of a transition strategy agreed in November 2023, work began to transition Avert’s core brands to African-led and African-based organisations who could maintain and grow Avert’s legacy into the future.
By the end of 2024 the transition had been successfully achieved and Avert's programme work ended. We are now working to close the organisation by April 2025.
Find out more about our transition strategy, about our partners OPHID, LVCT Health and Kenya Comms Hub who have taken forward our core brands, and about our legacy.
Empowering people through knowledge
During its last ten years, Avert focused primarily on digital communications to build health literacy on HIV and sexual health. As a non-profit with many years of experience, we were a trusted provider of accessible, accurate and actionable content and resources that supported informed sexual health choices.
Our work supported global efforts to end AIDS and achieve the Sustainable Development Goal for Health.
Every year, we engaged with millions of individuals, community health workers and primary health practitioners living in areas of greatest need through our brands Avert.org, Be in the KNOW and Boost. We used our understanding of HIV and sexual health; our expertise in digital marketing, communications and behaviour change; and our network of partnerships, to increase their knowledge, skills and confidence and their ability to act.
Our vision, mission and values
Avert’s vision was a world with no new HIV infections, where people make empowered sexual health choices, and where those living with HIV do so with dignity, good health and equality.
Our mission was to increase health literacy on HIV and sexual health, among those most affected in areas of greatest need, in order to reduce new infections and improve health and well-being.
Throughout our 38-year history, we consistently supported and promoted individuals’ inalienable right to health, and their right to make informed choices around their sexual health. We aimed for everything that we did, and how we did it, to be underpinned by our set of core values.
I am a seventeen-year-old girl and I’ve just spent the past 2 hours reading about sex and contraceptives from your site... never have I encountered a website that explained everything I needed so clearly and gave me information that I needed. Thank you so much. I really can’t convey how much I appreciate this knowledge.
Our core values
Evidence-based
We are committed to providing reliable, accurate, and high-quality information on HIV and sexual health. We use the latest evidence to inform our content and programmatic priorities.
Sex-positive
We believe in a sex-positive approach to sexual health and rights that recognises and celebrates sexual pleasure and sexual and gender diversity, prioritises personal agency, and is free of judgment.
Trustworthy
We have more than 30 years’ experience of working in the HIV response. We are recognised and accredited as a provider of accurate and reliable information.
Responsive
We adapt our approach to respond to changing trends in the HIV epidemic and in how our target audiences access and consume information.
Creative
We understand the power of new approaches to bring about change. We focus on solutions and think creatively to continually improve our work and bring new insights to the sector.
People-oriented
We put people at the centre of what we do and how we do it – supporting, valuing, engaging and involving them. We aim to be accessible, inclusive and friendly in everything we do.
Collaborative
We believe by working in partnership we can pool skills and resources, share learning, and have greater impact.
