Paper, people and policy

The conference is huge! It seems to get bigger everyday. There are so many sessions, exhibitions, people and, above all, lots and lots of paper! It feels like we all brought along some materials to share with other delegates and I wonder what will happen to all the reports, flyers, leaflets and cards that have been placed and left on the many tables around the conference areas…I guess they will all get chucked away. We all need to think about how to effectively convey messages about our work (whether we are passing on health promotion, information and campaign messages or simply profiling our work) without resorting to so much paper.

Enough about paper! I’ve attended some sessions about ‘positive leadership’ where participants discussed the big issues of accountability and representation. A participant in the audience stated:

‘Really, [networks representing us] listen to our voices. If you don’t have a story to tell, if you don’t hear us, you don’t represent us’.

Listening is so important; and acting on issues with the people who raise them and regularly feeding back to people is crucial even though it isn’t always easy when you’re juggling many different pieces of work.

Another engaging session was about meeting the sexual and reproductive health rights of people living with HIV. Rolake Odetoyinbo from Positive Action for Treatment Access in Nigeria stated that:

‘as far as most people are concerned, once you get infected, your sexual and reproductive life ends. But that is a myth, it doesn’t end, your desires don’t go away. And even if they do, eventually you get back to being a regular person. However, the programmes we have are not designed to take into account the sexual and reproductive needs of people living with HIV and even when they manage to put it in, it’s not rights-based’.

It is therefore important that governments, service providers, funders and advocates are ensuring that services are comprehensive (including access to treatment, to condoms, to antenatal services, to HIV testing) so as to meet the individual needs of both women and men living with HIV.

Some fun…I met Sheryl Lee Ralph who plays the role of the mum in Moesha (with Brandy)!! Jabu and I also had our photo taken with Stephen Lewis!! I also have a photo with Elizabeth Mataka who gave the keynote address at the National African HIV Conference in March!!

Georgina