PrEPnu mission

PrEPnu started as a grassroots initiative in 2015. A group of men lost their patience with the lack of action from politicians and professionals, and decided it was time for action to make PrEP available in The Netherlands. While the founding group included representatives of other organisations (HIV Vereniging, Aidsfonds, COC, Poz&Proud), we always steered our own independent course. We still value our roots as a community initiative, not tied to any formal organisations.
PrEPnu aims to ensure easily available PrEP and PrEP-related care for anyone in the Netherlands who needs it. Our focus is on the LGBT community, primarily gay and bi men, because PrEP has the highest added value for them. However, our goals are not limited to this group. As a community initiative, we are mostly active in our community. We inform people about PrEP through outreach at parties and other events, where we provide basic information, and through workshops where we can go more in-depth. We also actively lobby with politics and professionals, helping them to establish a good official system for PrEP.
Easy access to PrEP is a very concrete goal, but it is not an isolated one. There are several underlying reasons why we think this is such an important topic. Of course, getting the HIV epidemic under control is one motivation. But another motivation is to remove the fear of HIV, which is a reality for many gay and bi men, and thereby increase their sexual health. Finally, we also aim to reduce taboos around the sexual experience of gay and bi men, and to fight against HIV stigma.
PrEPnu as a lobbyist and activist group:

PrEP­nu has always wel­comed coop­er­a­tion, and is will­ing to coop­er­ate with any­one, but we will also not be slowed down or stopped by any­one. We part­ner with orga­ni­za­tions such as Aids Health Foun­da­tion, GGD’s, COC, Hiv Verenig­ing, Aids­fonds and Soa Aids Ned­er­land, both in lob­by­ing and orga­ni­za­tion­al aspects.

Since 2015, we have col­lab­o­rat­ed with a group of orga­ni­za­tions and experts from the field of HIV experts who have been unit­ed in the “PrE­Pared” lob­by group. Work­ing togeth­er with this group, we have tried and are still try­ing to encour­age politi­cians to offer PrEP with the low­est pos­si­ble bar­ri­ers. The results of these efforts vary (“Brief Bruins”).

When the Dutch gov­ern­ment decid­ed to seek advice from the Health Coun­cil in June 2017 before mak­ing a pol­i­cy deci­sion, we spoke to the advi­so­ry com­mis­sion to clar­i­fy our views, togeth­er with Hiv Verenig­ing, Aids­fonds and COC. The Health Council’s advice to the min­is­ter can be found here.

Nation­al pol­i­tics turned out to be pret­ty reluc­tant about PrEP. Motions from D66 and Groen­Links ask­ing to make PrEP avail­able as soon as pos­si­ble often depend­ed on sup­port from the VVD, who then did not vote to sup­port the motions. Sources told us that many mem­bers of par­lia­ment still have a lot of bias when it comes to gay sex (even though PrEP is not only about gay sex). A peti­tion from PrEP­nu with 4349 sig­na­tures did not change this.

We achieved a small vic­to­ry when the Ams­ter­dam City Coun­cil decid­ed in July 2017 to make extra funds avail­able to broad­en the GGD Amsterdam’s InPrEP pro­gram. PrEPnu’s opin­ion was heard in the city coun­cil when the motion was put for­ward there (again by D66 and GroenLinks).

PrEP­nu has always been promi­nent­ly fea­tured in debates about PrEP, such as the debate PrEP TALK in De Balie in Sep­tem­ber 2016, and the PrEP Deba­cle in Feb­ru­ary 2017 in Club Church.

PrEP­nu is also involved with We Are PrE­Pared, a work­ing group of GGDs, fam­i­ly doc­tors, Soa Aids Ned­er­land and PrEP experts, who try to imple­ment the intro­duc­tion of eas­i­ly avail­able PrEP and PrEP-relat­ed care accord­ing to the Brief Bru­ins in the third quar­ter of 2019.

PrEP­nu has par­tic­i­pat­ed twice in the Ams­ter­dam Canal Pride. In 2016, we were on a boat togeth­er with Poz & Proud, the gay men’s sec­tion of the HIV verenig­ing; and in 2018 we had our own boat. PrEP­nu has also par­tic­i­pat­ed three times in the Pride Walk, the tra­di­tion­al open­ing of Ams­ter­dam Pride. Well known drag queen Jen­nifer Hopelezz (also a mem­ber of PrEP­nu) was one of the ambas­sadors for Ams­ter­dam Pride 2018, and used her ambas­sador­ship to put and keep PrEP on the map.

PrEP­nu had a big suc­cess in talk­ing to phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies and phar­ma­cies in 2017 about PrEP, result­ed in a price reduc­tion for PrEP.

PrEPnu Community Outreach:

PrEPnu’s vol­un­teer team comes to large par­ties and events to inform the gen­er­al pub­lic about PrEP, espe­cial­ly tar­get­ing poten­tial PrEP users. By being vis­i­bly present, we want to bet­ter inte­grate PrEP in our community.

Do you want PrEP­nu to be present at your event?
Send an email to promotion(at)prepnu.nl

PrEP­nu was present at:

  • 19.03.2022 — Fun­House Amsterdam
  • 30.10.2021 — Mei­jt Par­ty Amsterdam
  • 23.10.2021 — Liq­uid Kid­dy Par­ty Amsterdam+
  • 16.10.2021 — Roze zater­dag Leeuwarden
  • 03.08.2021 — Chm­sex Com­panie Theater
  • 15.02.2020 — Fun­House Amsterdam
  • 14.02.2020 — Gay­Cir­cus Amsterdam
  • 13.02.2020 — Gay­Cir­cus Amsterdam
  • 26.01.2020 — COC True Colors
  • 22.12.2019 — Fun­House Amsterdam
  • 29.11.2019 — SOA AIDS Bijeenkomst Berlage Amsterdam
  • 28.11.2019 — COC Tilburg/Breda Voorlichting
  • 17.11.2019 — COC Walkin Par­ty Eindhoven
  • 02.11.2019 — COC Niet alleen Anders Utrecht
  • 26.10.2019 — Leather Pride Invasion
  • 12.10.2019 — Fun­House Amsterdam
  • 05.10.2019 — COC Cock­tail­par­ty Eind­hoven Pand 54
  • 05.10.2019 — BN Panama
  • 14.09.2019 — Street­heart Par­ty Amsterdam
  • 14.09.2019 — MSM Lei­den voorlichting
  • 07.09.2019 — Pride Dordrecht
  • 03.08.2019 — Fun­House Pride Amsterdam
  • 02.08.2019 — Street­par­ties Amsterdam
  • 28.07.2019 — Milk­shake 2019 Amsterdam
  • 27.07.2019 — Milk­shake 2019 Amsterdam
  • 27.07.2019 — Fun­House Amsterdam
  • 25.07.2019 — Pride Amersfoort
  • 20.07.2019 — COC Walkin Eindhoven
  • 27.06.2019 — Fun­House SexySide
  • 08.06.2019 — Fun­House Amsterdam
  • 20.04.2019 — Fun­House Amsterdam
  • COC Cock­tail Par­ty Ams­ter­dam — 20.04.2019
  • 19.04.2019 — Club Church Kick Off Ik Slik, Slik Jij
  • 16.03.2019 — COC Par­ty Eindhoven
  • 29.12.2018 — Bear Necessity
  • 22.12.2018 — Fun­house Christ­mas edition
  • 13.12.2018 — MSM Club Church
  • 23.11.2018 — Nation­aal Soa*Hiv*Seks congres
  • 13.10.2018 — Fun­house Octo­ber Fest
  • 06.10.2018 — Com­ing out Week Lelystad
  • 08.09.2018 — Church Street Festival
  • 15.09.2018 — COC Eind­hoven Cocktail
  • 04.08.2018 — Gay Pride boat
  • 27.07.2018 — AIDS2018 inter­na­tionale conferentie
  • 26.07.2018 — AIDS2018 inter­na­tionale conferentie
  • 25.07.2018 — AIDS2018 inter­na­tionale conferentie
  • 24.07.2018 — AIDS2018 inter­na­tionale conferentie
  • 23.07.2018 — AIDS2018 inter­na­tionale conferentie
  • 29.07.2018 — Milk­shake 2018
  • 28.07.2018 — Milk­shake 2018
  • 10.02.2018 — Euro­pean PrEP Summit
  • 09.02.2018 — Euro­pean PrEP Summit
  • 01.12.2017 — World AIDS day / Love dance
  • 25.11.2017 — Wasteland
  • 18.11.2017 — Funhouse
  • 07.01.2017 — Prik Expat PrEPtalk
  • 07.10.2017 — Bear Necessity
  • 06.08.2017 — Rapido
  • 05.08.2017 — Funhouse
  • 29.07.2017 — Milk­shake 2017
  • 28.07.2017 — Milk­shake 2017
  • 24.09.2016 — Beert­jes­dag NZ sauna
  • 07.08.2016 — Rapido
  • 06.08.2016 — Bear Necessity
  • 06.08.2016 — Fun­house XXL
  • 05.08.2016 — Invasion
  • 02.08.2016 — COC’s Shakespearclub
  • 25.07.2016 — Roze Maandag Tilburg
  • 21.07.2016 — Pride Amersfoort
PrEPnu Workshops:

In July 2017 we estab­lished an open con­sul­ta­tion hour with a med­ical pro­fes­sion­al, for peo­ple who need infor­ma­tion about PrEP. We also helped peo­ple to get PrEP when PrEP was still very expen­sive in Dutch phar­ma­cies. Because of high pop­u­lar­i­ty and lim­it­ed capac­i­ty we tran­si­tioned to (bi)weekly work­shops in Octo­ber 2017. Dur­ing these group con­sul­ta­tions, par­tic­i­pants were informed about what PrEP is and how to use and get it (safe­ly). At these work­shops, both a mem­ber of the gay com­mu­ni­ty and a med­ical pro­fes­sion­al are present, so as to pro­vide accu­rate and under­stand­able infor­ma­tion. By open­ly dis­cussing gen­er­al and sex­u­al health as a group, every­body is able to learn more and reflect on their own health practices.

More than 270 men have vis­it­ed one of our workshops.

We cur­rent­ly do not pro­vide work­shops anymore.

PrEPnu training voor healthcare professionals:

PrEP­nu believes it is impor­tant that more health­care pro­fes­sion­als should become acquaint­ed with PrEP and com­fort­able with pre­scrib­ing it. PrEP­nu was present at sev­er­al train­ings for health­care pro­fes­sion­als, where we pro­vid­ed insight into the moti­va­tion to get on PrEP.

PrEP­nu has had rep­re­sen­ta­tion at the fol­low­ing events for health­care professionals:

  • Nation­aal Soa*Hiv*Seks con­gress — 23.11.2018
    (in col­lab­o­ra­tion with WeArePrepared)
  • Huis­art­seno­plei­d­ing Ams­ter­dam lunch ses­sion — 07.11.2018
    (in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Jan van Bergen & Simone Vriend)
  • Ams­ter­dam region GP’s infor­ma­tion meet­ing — 24.04.2018
    (in col­lab­o­ra­tion with GGD Ams­ter­dam, Rob Her­manussen, Jan van Bergen)
  • “Hiv op de agen­da” meet­ing — 19.04.2018

PrEP­nu thanks the fol­low­ing peo­ple for their self­less con­tri­bu­tion of tal­ent, time and ener­gy to this project:

Con­cept — PrEPster.info
Cre­ative & design — 5stepsapart.
Images — © Rémon van den Kommer
Edi­tors — Team PrEPnu

*Except where oth­er­wise not­ed, text con­tent on this site is licensed under a Cre­ative Com­mons 4.0 Inter­na­tion­al license.