AIDS2008

The following was originally posted on PHR's Blog AIDS. It's not over, about the Iranian HIV/AIDS Docs I posted about recently here.  

 

The most moving aspect of AIDS 2008 so far for me has been meeting so many of Kamiar and Arash Alaei’s friends and colleagues—all of whom have stories and kind words about the two physicians detained in Iran and are hoping to see the brothers again soon. Today, one of their colleagues, Dr. Adeeba Kamarulzaman, gave an important plenary speech about her work on harm reduction—and in front of thousands of conference participants, made an impassioned plea to the Iranian Government to free Arash and Kamiar. To sustained applause, we walked in front of the plenary carrying signs with photos of the brothers and the URL for the petition to the government of Iran, IranFreeTheDocs.org. We passed out thousands of buttons and stickers, which are now all over the conference.  read more »

Yesterday morning I navigated the wonderful Mexico City subways (the trains come within seconds! there's a section of platform reserved for women and children! there are community bulletin boards and bright colors everywhere!) with three kind and friendly women of African descent from the South American nation of Guyana, who are staying in my hostel.

On the half hour shuttle bus ride after the subway, one of them told me a bit about their country, which lies between the Caribbean and Brazil. The women work for YWCA, but paid their own way here because they want to learn how to incorporate HIV services into their work to better serve their communities.

After I joked about how convenient it was for me that the Brits colonized so much of the planet, so I can meet up with so many conference attendees who also speak English, she told me more about their travels. Each of the women paid about 2,000 US dollars for their plane tickets. It would have been $900 if they could have flown through Miami, but the US embassy denied their visa applications to do so. She said, "The worker told us to put down the name of a person we could stay with in Miami, just in case. But I think that having given that name made them think we might stay in the U.S." Not something my country wanted to see.

The women were thus set back by an additional $100+ each for the application fees, which the embassy kept. The women borrowed extensively from friends and family. "My credit card is exhausted," my new friend said.  read more »

Hi friends,

I'm so inspired by the amazing work I'm learning about that's being done all over the world, and the boundless energy of the activists at this humongo-mundo conference. AIDS activists from dramatically different backgrounds and countries are building trust and planning actions together. But there´s always room for growth! In that spirit, I´ve put together some questions for us to think about this week, based on observations other activists have made here at the conference and ideas I´ve borrowed from other movements.

* Did we put enough energy and time into reaching out to local Mexican grassroots AIDS activists before the conference, so we could best understand each other´s struggles, goals for the conference and different strategic approaches, and support each other´s actions this week?  read more »

Mexican sex workers want place at AIDS conference
Sun Aug 3, 2008 9:43am EDT
By Tan Ee Lyn

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A global AIDS conference that opens in Mexico City on Sunday is meant for people infected with HIV, but transsexual sex worker Elma Delea cannot get inside.

She will be protesting on the fringes of the six-day biennial event.

"They (Mexican health authorities) said they had no money for everyone who wanted scholarships. We are very angry," said Elma Delea, as she stood at the junction of Calle de Alfredo Chavero and Calzada San Antonio Abad, a stretch of road where transsexuals wait all night to be picked up by customers in passing cars.

Her friends nodded, citing other explanations given by organizers, such as not being able to speak English.

Some 25,000 people are expected at the event, which draws scientists, international agencies, government officials, non-government organizations and the media.

But people most at risk of the disease, such as sex workers, homosexuals and intravenous drug users, are least visible. Most are poor and cannot afford registration fees.

"The conference is a place to exchange opinion but now, only those in power have a say," said Elvira Madrid, an activist working for the rights of sex workers in Mexico City.  read more »

http://sida2008.blogia.com/ is a community blog in Spanish for activists who are participating in and protesting at the Int’l AIDS conference in Mexico City. This was launched as a companion site to AIDS2008.com (although it's unaffiliated and it's pretty scrappy). Please share this announcement with Spanish-speaking allies and groups you know who may be interested in contributing or reading our dispatches!

Por favor, reenvíen este email...

http://sida2008.blogia.com/ - un blog para activistas durante la Conferencia de SIDA!

Usted estará en México para la Conferencia del SIDA?

Hay un blog en que Uds. puede participar - le invitamos a escribir algo sobre activismo y el conferencia del SIDA en Ciudad de México 2008- su experiencia, expectaciones o eventos que ud. quiere publicar. Ud. debe invitar a sus amigos, compadres, hermanas a publicar también.

A escribir por este blog , ir a http://sida2008.blogia.com/, oprima "publicar articulo", escribir un nombre que ud. quiere usar y para "clave" escribir: "justicia"

Un poco de la historia:

Durante este conferencia activistas del todos partes del mundo vienen a protestar gobiernos y grandes compañías farmacéuticos.
 read more »

Welcome to AIDS2008.com, an independent community resource sponsored by Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP) for the 2008 XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City. With over 45 community bloggers and other journalists from around the world reporting from Mexico, AIDS2008.com will be the home for community voices from the conference.

If you're interested in contributing to AIDS2008.com as a blogger, please complete this application and submit it to Cameron Lefevre as soon as you can.

Please contact us if you have any questions or comments about AIDS2008.com.