Alliance at the ICAAP Conference

[Guest guest]

The following is a guide to the events organised by the International

HIV/AIDS Alliance at the ICAAP Conference in Melbourne (from 5th October

2001). The guide includes background information on Alliance workshops and

poster presentations and a list of Alliance staff attending the conference.

There a number of events involving work in India which I hope will be of

interest to you, including a joint Alliance and Naz India workshop. Poster

presentations and the launching of the NAM publications website take place

at the Alliance booth (booth 80).

Promoting sexual health for MSM and gay men in South Asia - Skills building

(joint Alliance and Naz India session)Saturday 6 October, 12:30 - 13:50

(Room: Corryong 2)

Training NGOs & CBOs in South Asia to work with MSM - Skills building (joint

Alliance and Naz India session)Sunday 7 October, 13:30 - 15:00

(Room: Corryong 2)

The objectives of these workshops are:

(a) To develop an understanding among participants on why and how their

organisations can and need to develop programmes to work with MSM;

( To raise some specific MSM related issues and impart training skills

and tools to address these;

© To disseminate copies of the training manual: " An Introduction to

Promoting Sexual Health for Men Who Have Sex with Men and Gay Men " .

These workshops will help build skills of participants using tools from the

training manual - " An Introduction to Promoting Sexual Health for Men Who

Have Sex with Men and Gay Men " . This manual was developed in South Asia by

Naz Foundation (India) Trust during 2000-01 and field tested in the region,

in collaboration with several other organisations from India, Bangladesh and

Sri Lanka. The tools in this manual are based on participatory exercises

and provide practical methods to include promotion of sexual health among

MSM by organisations in their ongoing programmes. The project was provided

technical and financial support by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.

This is the first and as yet only manual of its kind for South Asia,

developed by an organisation in South Asia. The workshop will be

facilitated by resource persons from Naz Foundation (India) Trust and the

International HIV/AIDS Alliance. The workshop is based on participatory

methods and will involve small group work.

Pathways to Involving PLHAs in CBOs and NGOs - Skills building

Sunday 7 October, 10:30 - 13:00 (Room: Corryong 4)

A group of four CBOs and NGOs based in Maharashtra were involved in

operations research on the involvement of PLHA. NGO and CBO members,

together with researchers used the findings of the research to design a

series of participatory activities and tools that they called " pathways to

involvement " . Other community groups, including PLHA groups, can use these

activities and tools in order to plan effectively a meaningful and greater

involvement of PLHA at the community level.

Some of these participatory tools and activities will be used during the

session. The methodology will include small group discussions, utilisation

of cards and dynamic use of space by participants ( " building " of the

pathways).

Scaling up community based care and support - Sponsored session

Monday 8 October, 13:30 - 15:00 (Room: Bellarine 1)

With an escalating burden of the HIV/AIDS epidemic across the Asia-Pacific

region, there is an urgent need to rapidly scale up care and support

programmes. The symposium will cover strategic and programmatic issues

around scaling up activities, through presentations of care and support

models adopted in different settings within the region.

Meeting of project workers and technical experts: " Making Sex Work Safe "

Thursday 4 October, All day

The Asia Pacific Network of Sex Work Projects and the International HIV/AIDS

Alliance will hold a meeting of project workers and technical experts. This

is in order to begin the process of producing a substantial resource for use

by organisations working to reduce HIV/STI transmission during commercial

sex in Asia. It will be based on " Making Sex Work Safe: a guide for

programme managers, field workers and policy makers " , a book produced

originally by the International Network of Sex Work Projects. In the

meeting in Melbourne decisions will be made about how to develop the content

and form of the resource to ensure that it is accessible and appropriate for

its target audience.

Gender and sexuality in men's lives: Lessons and directions for sexual

health work with men - Poster presentation Monday 8 October, All day

In partnership with the Alliance linking organisation in the Philippines,

the Philippine HIV/AIDS NGO Support Program (PHANSuP), the Alliance

organised a workshop on " Gender and Sexuality in Men's Lives: Lessons and

Directions for Sexual Health Work with Men " . Male and female participants

from a range of Filipino health and development NGOs, together with Alliance

linking organisation staff from Bangladesh, Cambodia and Mongolia, explored

their understandings of gender and sexuality in men's lives, debated

questions of vulnerability and responsibility, and shared lessons learned

from their programme experiences. The workshop discussed analytical

frameworks and operational approaches to improve the reach and effectiveness

of participants' sexual and reproductive work with men. It also developed

monitoring tools to strengthen participants' capacity to document, analyse,

and evaluate such work and men's responses to it.

Involving people living with HIV/AIDS in research: Guaranteeing the rights of

HIV-Positive study participants. Tuesday 9 October, 9:00-17:00. Poster

presentation

The International HIV/AIDS Alliance, in collaboration with Tata Institute of

Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai and the Horizons Program, undertook a study

in India to document the models of PLHA involvement in NGOs and CBOs. A

similar study has been conducted in three other countries: Burkina Faso,

Ecuador and Zambia.

A key characteristic of the study was its highly participatory methodology.

The principle of involving research subjects in studies is not new. It has

been often used for ideological, programmatic and/or methodological

purposes. However in research on HIV/AIDS and with PLHA, the practice has

often lagged behind the rhetoric. This poster describes how the practical

involvement of PLHA in the study was used as a mechanism to protect their

rights.

NAM website launch at the Alliance booth:

aidsmap.com for the latest information on HIV and AIDS

The Alliance's partnership with HIV information provider NAM is all about

expanding access to HIV information. Reports on home care and on children's

needs from Cambodia, and a report on HIV prevention in Bangladesh, Cambodia

and Sri Lanka, are newly available in plain text, fully searchable. There's

much more to read on treatments, testing, prevention and other issues. Find

it all at www.aidsmap.com.

NAM's global directory of (national) HIV agencies includes the Asia-Pacific

region, online and in print. To update an entry or request a new entry,

pick up a form from the Alliance Booth (80). A separate leaflet also

explains how to subscribe to NAM's e-mail bulletin, keeping you up to date.

NAM staff reporting from ICAAP on www.aidsmap.com are:

n Meldrum, International Editor, julian@... and

Nicholson, Sydney-based treatments editor.

Alliance staff attending the ICAAP Conference:

Jerker Edström: Director, Field Programmes

Caroline Halmshaw: Co-ordinator, Policy and Communications

Dr. Sujit Ghosh: Senior Programme Officer, South Asia

Dr. Vicente Salas: Senior Programme Officer, Southeast and East Asia

Cheryl Overs: Senior Programme Officer, Prevention

Dr. Asha Rao: Executive Director, India HIV/AIDS Alliance

Kind regards

Garry Robson

Communications Assistant

International HIV/AIDS Alliance

E-mail: <grobson@...>