Gender-based violence

When members of Brigada Callejera, a sex workers' and transgender rights organization in Mexico City, came to the first of the AIDS2008 activist meetings last Saturday morning, they explained the human rights issues that sex workers here face. Not only are sex workers forced to take STD and HIV tests - and carry a card saying they are HIV negative - a new policy requires them to pay for these tests themselves. This repression is in addition to the fact that sex work is still illegal here, and the police are more likely to arrest workers if they carry condoms.

The group, whose members include Elvira Madrid, Krisna, and Elma Delea, also held a lively protest for access to HIV meds in Mexico yesterday. I believe that Krisna said in the activist meeting on Saturday that antiretrovirals cost 7,500 pesos per month (about $750) here in Mexico, but I need to fact-check that. She did say that indigenous people have almost no access to prevention or treatment services.  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 »

 read more »

Hi everyone,

 I'm introducing myself and this blog for AIDS 2008, which will be updated daily. I'm focusing my work and attention on the issues of HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence as the key topic for this blog and my activity at the Mexico IAC conference. My personal goal for the week is to listen, learn, share and hone in on concrete solutions and programs that are working for women and groups at the community level.

 I'll also be sharing Video Profiles and interviews here with you. These are from my new venture-- a multimedia magazine using mostly video called "Talk to the Future: A Public Conversation with Today's Boldest Voices." I've been planning it for about six months, and the pilot issue launches in just a week, so I'm excited. My interest is in finding, talking to and promoting the people and ideas that are the most exciting, innovative, smart or successful - the doers and visionary programs that deserve our greater attention and wider application. I want to dig deeper and ask some tough questions too. And I want to show the passion that people have for their work and lives and mission -- the personal side to this global AIDS fight. The magazine won't be just about global AIDS -- it will cover cross-cutting issues like the current food crisis, sexual violence, green economics -- a holistic approach and view to some of the critical global problems.  read more »