A young hairdresser Sveta from a large family in the Chuvash village (Russia) had to move out from her home village as her neighbors, friends and relatives did not accept the fact that she is HIV positive. She moved to another city, won the title of Miss Positive 2005, got married, born two children, made through the court permission to patronize her younger brother after the death of parents (according to the Russian legislation, HIV-positive people can not adopt or patronize children),…

[My sincere thanks to Vivek Anand, Ashok Row Kavi and Sridhar of Humsafar Trust for sharing this story. Humsafar Trust (HST) has led the way in developing innovative and effective programs targeting MSM and transgender populations in India. I am very proud of the Humsafar team. Vivek narrates this story. Enjoy! Rituu]



Today: At Humsafar…

 As yet another round of the calendar comes it is yet another special moment and reminder to all that 7th May 2011 is Word AIDS Orphans Day, a grassroots campaign to draw attention to and advocate on behalf of the more than 16 million children orphaned by AIDS. World AIDS Orphans Day was founded in 2002 by FXB International.

The Legacy Explorers humbly joint the honourable initiative in the most humble manner and voiced our voice, tabled our commitment and appeal to all on behalf of…

« Jean-Louis, rédigeons ensemble la déclaration universelle du droit au rêve ! ». Hakim revient du travail de son groupe lors de l’atelier que la Constellation organise à Casablanca sur le développement de la compétence face au sida.  La question était  simple : «  Nous sommes en 2025. Tout le monde parle de la réussite du Maroc dans la lutte contre le sida. Décrivez en 10 phrases ce que les Marocains font pour réussir ». Hakim est rayonnant. « Cela…

Donor fatigue is a phenomenon in which people no longer give to charities, although they have donated in the past. There are a number of causes for donor fatigue, including pressure to donate, overstretched budgets, and frustration with mis-managed charities and donation campaigns. Many charities work hard to avoid donor fatigue, since it negatively impacts their collected funds for the year. There are an assortment of ways in which donor fatigue can be avoided by both donors and…

O Estabelecimento de um Memorial

O primeiro de Maio foi estabelecido como dia internacional do trabalhador a 20 de Junho de 1889 em Paris, durante uma conferência da organização política internacional socialista. A escolha desta data foi em homenagem aos trabalhadores que participaram em manifestações sindicais em  1886 , no Chicago, onde reivindicavam a pesada carga horária de trabalho. Porém, a manifestação teve um fim trágico com a morte de centenas de…

Building Trust, Mobilising Communities and Sustaining Response through SALT - Volunteer Youth Corps Young Leaders Club by Korey Anthony Chisholm – National UN Volunteer

When young people get organized at the community level, have an open and fair representation in the ‘organisations and youth projects’, have access to information, hold genuine dialogue sessions among themselves and with the grown-ups, and use participatory approaches in their…

(Whispering.) “Psst, excuse me, but actually it’s not ‘your’ program. And if you think that it is, we may have a problem on our hands.”

Many would argue that who owns what in development is a key aspect, if not the aspect, to a project’s or program’s success.



And so a person’s choice word choice when describing their work or do-gooder endeavor can actually reveal quite a lot.



Some may think I’m just being…

I’m sharing an interesting discussion that’s been going on via the LinkedIn Africa NGO Network group, "Why is development aid having corruption problems in Africa generally?". Some of the key contributions on root issues follow below.…

The past 2 weeks have found Boris, Autry and I in Suriname working with a fantastic team to integrate WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) with the community life competence process.  There is the phrase - 'Water is Life'.  We have heard reflections this week that you can have water, but no real 'life' in communities.  Trust, respect and vision are also needed.  The skilled, passionate, committed team in Suriname is going to teach us all alot about this in the coming months.  Thank you in…

I was given the opportunity to work with a nurse who is presently HIV for the past two year now, her problem is to coming to grip with the reality of her status, however, after about three hour she was willing to open up and discuss her problem, and even informed me that her collages at the hospital is advising her to leave her profession and seek a next job.

However, I advised her that is not the right think to do, but however, she should educate herself more about her…

Lutte contre la stigmatisation et la discrimination liées au VIH/sida « l’autre combat contre le VIH/sida »

   

L'ONG Walé en tant que structure de référence en matière de lutte contre le VIH-sida dans la région de Ségou est confrontée quotidiennement à la stigmatisation dans l’offre de ses services (constats faits au sein de l’organisation et au niveau des vécus des PVVIH)

    

Ainsi, pour amorcer une dynamique devant…

ACP changed my view

Story by: Satayu Sittikan, Technical Assistant, Positive MSM from Thai ACP Network

At the beginning when I started working on HIV/AIDS issue with MSM (Men who have Sex with Men) and Transgender who live with HIV and AIDS, I felt that I have…

A wannabe hot-shot technical advisor, I had just enough knowledge to be useful and just enough naïveté to be dangerous.



I was new to the country office and eager to demonstrate my monitoring and evaluation (M&E) prowess.



The task at hand was completing a mid-term review of a “problematic” implementing partner whose work focused on HIV and food security programming. There was no baseline, but go for it.



Oh, and this particular country office needed to put…

(A sharing by Kokila, Saraoja amma and Rani, Thiruvannamalai Deepam AIDS Thaduppu Sangam)

Three members from a CBO of FSW in Thiruvannamalai visited a village to pass a Panchayat resolution against stigma and discrimination on PLHIV and on people who are vulnerable to HIV.

While they were addressing the villagers, the Village chairman said that there was a woman who was infected and they had isolated her from the village.  Then the three women…

 A sharing by Thamizh, Nandhni and Mohana of Sumangali AIDS Thaduppu Sangam, Rasipuram, Tamil Nadu, India

“We provide a lot of services for the community members and for the public through our MSM CBO. We create awareness about HIV, STIs and condom use among our community members. Earlier, if people saw us in public places they would mock at us and ridicule us. They looked at us as untouchables. They would not sit next to us in the…

“This one is to Kazan, a new star in the Constellation”, I hear myself saying. My fingers dip in a small wooden tin. With two fingertips I take a few grains, I put them in my mouth. The SALT is strong, pure and tasty. Then I pass the tin on to my new friend, Svetlana (the small), from Kazan – Russia. She is sitting next to me on a large table with smiling…

22 year old Chawngmawii from Mizoram, North East India left home when she was sixteen. Coming from a broken family with a history of abuse, she started living with her friends or in the streets when she got hooked on to injecting drugs. She got into sex work to support her drug habit and in 2008 was diagnosed as HIV positive.  With the help of some NGOs, she started visiting the existing drop in centres (DICs) to access services.…