The Union's Community Advisory Panel (UCAP) is a voluntary group of engaged members of affected communities and civil society who advise The Union’s board and management on how to best address the needs of affected communities and civil society across the organisation.
UCAP also leads the coordination of Community Connect at the Union World Conference on Lung Health.
Current members of UCAP are:
Zahedul Islam, Chair and Europe Representative
Zahedul is Director of Treatment, Procurement and Supply Management at Alliance for Public – Ukraine. For over 15 years, Zahedul worked with Medecins Sans Frontieres in West and Central Africa, India, Central Asia and Eastern Europe in positions including Head of Mission and Country Director. He has an MBA in Public Health Management. He is a civil society representative on the WHO Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator platform, executive committee member of STOP TB Partnership Ukraine and a member of Medecins Sans Frontieres - South Asia board of directors.
Eva Naznin, Asia Pacific Representative
Eva has 10 years of experience in public health, health care financing, health systems strengthening, policy analysis, primary healthcare, and implementation support.
Eva has worked for several international organisations, including Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, World Health Organization, and International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research. She has a PhD in Community Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology and a Master’s in Health Economics in the field of health and development.
Kinz ul Eman, Middle East Representative
Kinz ul Eman is a global health professional, chartered accountant, and project management expert. Kinz is currently leading Dopasi Foundation's programmatic interventions across Pakistan. She has worked in various national and international consulting assignments with The World Bank, Stop TB Partnership, Jhpiego and various UN agencies.
Kinz is the pioneer of development of the TB Community, Rights and Gender Action Plan 2023-25 in Pakistan. She is the secretarial lead for Stop TB Partnership Pakistan, the End TB Parliamentary Caucus and TB survivors’ group in Pakistan.
Priyanka Aiyer, South East Asia Representative
Priyanka Aiyer is a communications specialist with over seven years of experience in designing and implementing campaigns at national, regional and global levels. Priyanka was the Communications and Digital Media Officer at the Global Coalition of TB Advocates.
She regularly workers with patient rights groups, survivor coalitions and community members at large.
Priyanka is the co-author of the Asia Pacific TB and Human Rights Advocacy Strategy, and she has curated the collection of survivor stories - Men and TB Stigma: Conversations of Resilience in The War Against TB. She has a Master's in film studies.
Tariro Kutadza, Africa Representative
Tariro Kutadza is an HIV/TB Advocate with ZNNP+ based in Zimbabwe. A former teacher, she is known as a community actor working for the improvement of the community to HIV and AIDS response in Southern Africa.
Tariro has been a Union member since 2013. She is an active trainer and facilitator on HIV/TB prevention and treatment. Tariro has an Honours in Educational Management and a Master’s in Public Health.
Ajaz Akhtar, Affected Community Representative
Dr Ajaz Akhtar is an experienced medical practitioner with clinical specialisation in family medicine. He has a Master’s in public health and a PhD in social science.
Ajaz is from Pakistan, where the population is highly affected with chronic pulmonary diseases such as TB, bronchial asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. He is working to best tackle the needs of affected communities and civil society.
Erman Varella, Affected Community Representative
Erman Varella is Program Manager at Stop TB Partnership Indonesia.
Erman has 15 years’ experience in HIV and TB programmes, with a focus on: advocacy, communication and social mobilisation, community engagement; capacity building of social workers and civil society organisations, peer support, TB active case-finding, motivational interviewing, proposal development, case management and psychosocial support.
Phumeza Tisile, Affected Community Representative
Phumeza Tisile is a health activist, a student at the University of Cape Town and an advocacy officer at TB Proof.
In 2010, she was diagnosed with normal TB, while all along she had extensively drug-resistant TB. Phumeza went through gruelling treatment that left her deaf in both ears. In 2015, she got a once in a lifetime chance to hear again. She can hear now using cochlear implants.
Phumeza co-authored the first Drug Resistant TB Manifesto, which she presented at the 67th World Health Assembly.