CATCH
VOL 1 NO 1
THE VOICE OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA CULTURAL FOUNDATION
As per the United Nations Development Programme, HIV / AIDS epidemic has in two decade infected nearly seventy million people since it began. Some Forty two million are living with HIV and AIDS and over Twenty Five million have died. Without decisive action not only we will fail to achieve the Millennium Developement Goal of reversing the spread of HIV / AIDS, but worse the number of people infected is likely to double in less than a decade. International funding to confront the epidemic has began to grow, but it will take massive, comprehensive and sustained intervention in both high and low prevalence countries to turn the tide.
Moreover, stigma and discrimination are the major obstacles to effective HIV / AIDS prevention and care. Fear of discrimination may prevent people from seeking treatment from AIDS or from acknowledging their HIV status publicly. People with or suspected of having HIV may turned away from health care services, denied housing and employment, shunned by their friends and colleagues, turned down for insurance coverage or refused entry into foreign countries. In this some cases they may be evicted from home by their families, divorced by thier spouses, and suffer physical violence or even murder. The stigma attached to HIV / AIDS may extend into the next generation, placing an emotional burden on children who may also be trying to cope with the death of their parents from AIDS.
UN Secretary-General and leaders join stars in “LIGHT FOR RIGHTS” event on World AIDS Day in New York City
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon speaking at the "Light for Rights" event during the World AIDS Day celebrations in New York City.
Credit: UNAIDS/B. Hamilton
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon joined with leaders in the AIDS response and entertainment stars at a dramatic public event commemorating World AIDS Day 2009 on 1 December at New York City’s historic Washington Square Park Memorial Arch.
Lights on the arch and other landmarks around the city were turned off at 6:15 pm to remember those lost to AIDS, and to represent how stigma, discrimination, fear and shame drive people with HIV into the darkness; then re-lighted to show how shining a human rights light on HIV can help people with HIV emerge from the shadows, to seek the information, treatments, care and support they need to live healthy lives.
“On World AIDS Day this year, our challenge is clear: we must continue doing what works, but we must also do more, on an urgent basis, to uphold our commitment to reach universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. “This goal can be achieved only if we shine the full light of human rights on HIV. AIDS responses do not punish people; they protect them.”
If we shine a human rights light on people with AIDS, they can emerge from the darkness to gain access to treatment, information, care and support to allow them to live normal lives.
Dr Paul de Lay, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Programme
Joining the event were Naomi Watts, Oscar-nominated actress and UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador; Christine C. Quinn, Speaker of the New York City Council; Oscar winner and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Susan Sarandon, Dr Paul De Lay, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS; and Tembeni Fazo, a counselor and educator for HIV-positive African and Caribbean immigrants in New York; and Cheyenne Jackson, a star on television and now on Broadway, who opened the evening.
UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador and actor Naomi Watts addressed the event in New York.
Credit: UNAIDS/B. Hamilton
UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador Naomi Watts highlighted the injustice of stigma. “It has been both unfortunate and unfair for HIV infection to be considered a shameful disease, for people living with HIV to be judged as blameworthy, and for AIDS to be equated with certain death. I have personally seen that dignity and hope have been strongest among those whose lives were changed by HIV.” As UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador, Watts has used her celebrity status to raise AIDS awareness and give a greater voice to the needs of people living with HIV.
“We are here tonight to shine a light on the human rights that are so central to the success of the fight against AIDS. And we’re here to recommit ourselves to bringing an end to the global AIDS epidemic,” said Kenneth Cole, renowned fashion designer, chairman of Kenneth Cole Productions, and chairman of the board of trustees of amfAR (The Foundation for AIDS Research), who hosted the event.
UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Programme Paul De Lay at the "Light for Rights" World AIDS Day event. New York, 01 December 2009.
Credit: UNAIDS/B. Hamilton
The event launched the global LIGHT FOR RIGHTS campaign organized by amfAR, UNAIDS, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, and the World AIDS Campaign. UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director Paul De Lay confirmed UNAIDS support, “UNAIDS is excited to participate in the launch of this two-year campaign to shine a light on the importance of humans rights for achieving universal access.
“If we shine a human rights light on people with AIDS, they can emerge from the darkness to gain access to treatment, information, care and support to allow them to live normal lives,” he continued.
Dr De Lay called Tom Viola, Executive Director of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, and Marcel Van Soest, the Executive Director of the World AIDS Campaign, to join him on stage and thanked their organizations for the commitment to co-sponsor the two-year LIGHT FOR RIGHTS campaign. Dr De Lay also thanked Mr. Cole for his leadership on the campaign and for the LIGHTS FOR RIGHTS brand and Red Ribbon Light Bulb symbol, which the design team of Kenneth Cole Productions developed in consultation with the four co-sponsoring organizations.
Other speakers spoke powerfully of the shared responsibility we have to ensure rights are protected.
Ms Susan Sarandon, who was a leader of efforts to free HIV-positive Haitian refugees from the HIV detention Camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in the early 1990’s, recalled the long struggle against stigma and isolation facing people living with HIV, and said that ensuring respect for human rights is essential. City Council Speaker Quinn highlighted how the lack of equality for segments of the general population including the inequality of men who have sex with men, drug users, sex workers and women and girls, heightens their vulnerability to discrimination and marginalization, which makes them especially at risk of contracting HIV.
Other landmarks around the city that dimmed their lights and then re-illuminated them as part of the LIGHT FOR RIGHTS event included: the Chrysler Building; Rockefeller Center; Lincoln Center, including the Metropolitan Opera, Avery Fisher Hall, the David H. Koch Theater and the Revson Fountain; the MetLife Building; Madison Square Garden; the Beacon Theatre; 33 Broadway theaters; and Radio City Music Hall.
The World AIDS Campaign is a global coalition of national, regional and international civil society groups united by the call for governments to honour their AIDS commitments under the slogan “Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise"
AIDSspace.org was launched on 24 November and will fulfil UNAIDS’ vision of an online community for the 33.4 million people living with HIV and the millions who are part of the AIDS response. AIDSspace.org was created to expand both informal and established networks to help maximize resources for a stronger response to the epidemic.
Modelled on popular social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, which have shown the potential of online word-of-mouth movements, AIDSspace.org fills the gap for an accessible and shared platform for the global AIDS community.
Through sharing the vast knowledge and experience out there, from the community organizations doing excellent work but do not have the resources to maintain a website to the PHD student wanting to publish their thesis, I know AIDSspace can bring us all together and will contribute towards a more cohesive and well informed AIDS response .
Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS
The site is built on three key principles: Connect, Share and Access. Through AIDSspace, members can meet and connect with other members to learn from their work, exchange ideas and discover new networks; post and share key policies, best practices, multimedia materials, reports and other essential resources; as well as access and post jobs, consultancies, requests for proposals, as well as reviews on service providers.
Since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, individuals, organizations, universities and government bodies have produced invaluable knowledge but most materials have remained separate on individual organization’s web sites or in databases.
In applying a community content-generated approach, it is hoped that AIDSspace will capture this extensive knowledge and make information available to expand the reach and effectiveness of HIV professionals.
Speaking at UNAIDS’ governing body meeting earlier in December, the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Mr Michel Sidibé, underlined the important role of AIDSspace in supporting the work of individuals and organizations working on HIV.
“Through sharing the vast knowledge and experience out there, from the community organizations doing excellent work but do not have the resources to maintain a website to the PHD student wanting to publish their thesis, I know AIDSspace can bring us all together and will contribute towards a more cohesive and well informed AIDS response,” he said.
Currently in testing mode, or Beta, AIDSspace is building its foundation of users, but has already been effective at disseminating reports and documents, building connections across the globe and organizing activists.
The AIDSspace team hopes to improve the site to meet the needs of the global AIDS community, including the creation of multilingual platforms. Through using the best information technology tools, the ambition of AIDSspace is assist the AIDS and broader development communities to make their work go even further.
It’s clear that the HIV epidemic the world faces today is not the same as when it peaked in 1996. The number of people living with HIV globally is now at 33.4 million and although 2.7 million people became newly infected with HIV in 2008, good news is that this is a decrease by 17% over the last eight years.
There have been many successes in the AIDS response in recent times including increases in HIV treatment coverage and prevention of mother-to-child transmission services, and an indication of decline in HIV incidence in some regions. However, at the moment globally five people are becoming infected with HIV for every two people accessing treatment.
It is therefore critical that the way we respond keeps pace with and overtakes the epidemic if we are to see a real change in people’s lives, aspirations and futures.
UNAIDS Outlook 2010, a new publication launched today, explores new ideas and ways to use the data collected in the AIDS Epidemic Update companion report.
Outlook gives an overview of the epidemic with global and regional statistics, but also contains analysis offering the UNAIDS interpretation and eyes the data available in the more detailed AIDS Epidemic Update report from different angles.
The cover of Outlook features Prudence Mabele, the first black woman in South Africa to disclose her HIV status publicly in 1992 because she was “tired of the silence and stigma surrounding HIV,” as she puts it. Seventeen years down the road, Prudence is the executive director of the Positive Women’s Network she created in 1996. In Outlook we follow her for day.
The publication also poses a number of bold questions that call for a response: How can we use our knowledge of the HIV epidemic and response for more effective programming at country level? How do we become smarter about HIV prevention to make a real difference? What is the anatomy of a bad law from a human rights perspective?
Features include “Where does the Money for AIDS go?” exploring fund flows in the AIDS response and “Being the Change” digging deeper into issues on young people, sexuality and how behaviors are changing, mixed with captivating images and storytelling narratives to show the plight of individuals.
Tying the Outlook together is an intimate interview with UNAIDS Executive Director, Mr Michel Sidibé who as he approaches the end of his first year in office as UNAIDS head sees real change and is inspired by the perseverance of the human spirit every day. In this one-on-one with the reader, Mr Sidibé renews his commitment to push himself, UNAIDS and the world to deliver in the AIDS response.
courtesy UNAIDS
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