Recognizing the critical importance of patient advocates in the fight against TB, MSF projects in Eshowe in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Province and Khayelitsha in the Western Cape recently held “TB Leaders” workshops for people whose lives have been touched by TB or drug-resistant TB, aiming to empower a new generation of TB activists. To further promote the role of patient advocates in driving patient-centered care in the country MSF worked with Dutch photographer Jelle Krings to produce series of “survivor activist” portraits.

The National Department of Health’s TB Ambassadors program and an organization of TB activists called TB Proof helped connect MSF and Krings to a very diverse set of TB survivors, including a pop star, a Zulu prince and the current Miss South Africa, alongside internationally-recognized survivor activist Phumeza Tisile and several more TB activists and champions from three provinces.