Interesting meeting on May 25, 2010

[Elena Sosnovskaya]

Today our team started the morning from an interesting discussion. We met with Mr. Jean Louis Lamboray, the Chair of the Constellation for AIDS Competence. A few words about us. We are the Regional Support Team for UNAIDS in Europe and Central Asia. The meeting started from short introductions of our professional capacities, moved on with warm personal stories from each colleague about us as human beings (family stories, hobbies and travel, funny stories, carrier paths, backgrounds) and then we did a self-assessment of our team in terms of AIDS competence. There was about 16 people and we divided in two teams to evaluate our practices in regard to HIV / AIDS and assess our response as a community. Some assessments were the same and some differed. We shared them in order to build our common competence. At the end Mr. Lamboray answered the questions from colleagues on how we can launch this initiate in Russia and where to start. It was a great process. I am happy to learn about my colleagues things that I did not know for the time working in the team and I am inspired by the energy we generated during this morning for creating Russia’s constellations.

[Laurence Gilliot]

Hi Elena,

I was revisiting your blog and a question came to my mind. What were the priority practices chosen by the team? What are the actions you will undertake to progress?

Laurence

[NAMARA ARTHUR ARAALI]

Dear Elena,
Greetings from Uganda.
Thanks for sharing and evaluating each others effort. I am trying to link up with colleagues in Uganda to do the same more especially at this time when our HIV prevalence rates are going up again. The question amidst us is that: is our Uganda loosing the battle. This is a time when Uganda should consider using AIDS Competence approach to help our community and your experience is of great value to us.

[Gaston]

Dear Elena, that is a nice description and I like the picture. It shows the lively discussion. I facilitated the self-assessment of AIDS Competence a few months ago with the joint UN team in Guyana. It led to lively discussions and unleashed a different atmosphere in the group. Many team members requested to do this regularly. They felt these discussions were something they were missing. Not just to assess their AIDS Competence, but also to find a space to share within the team as a community of work.

Regards from Chiang Mai,

[Rituu B. Nanda]

Dear Elena,

Greetings from India!

Thanks for this nice sharing. How was this meeting different from other meetings? What was the highlight?

Thanks and regards,

Rituu

[Onesmus Mutuku]

Elena, your starting note sounds powerful.

Karibu!

Onesmus

[Elena Sosnovskaya]

Thank you Mr. Lamboray! Now I am in.

[Jean-Louis Lamboray]

Bravo Elena, and welcome to the Constellation!