Transcending geographical and cultural boundaries

30 November 2006

Project Celebration, a series of activities to share experiences and learn from the work of the Alliance’s Frontiers Prevention Project, took place in November in Brighton and London, UK.

Representatives from sex worker organisations, groups of people with HIV, transgenders and men who have sex with men, staff from Alliance organisations, and peer outreach workers in Cambodia, Ecuador, India, Madagascar and Morocco came to Brighton, UK for the week’s activities. Despite participants speaking six different languages, and coming from different countries and contexts, Project Celebration highlighted that certain issues facing key populations are common and fundamental, transcending boundaries.

The meeting ended with a one-day policy event in London to share the week’s learning with policy and decision makers.

The week highlighted that key populations continue to be marginalized in the AIDS response. They face human rights abuses and are not being taken into account in National AIDS programmes.

Participants agreed that focusing on risk behaviours alone is not adequate and that a holistic approach is needed to address the epidemic – an approach that takes into account people’s social and economic status and recognition that the environment currently does not allow key populations sufficient choices and access to services.

To create an enabling environment, stigma and discrimination must be addressed, and programmes for key populations should ensure that strategic links are made with other movements, including human rights movements, women’s movements, and poverty alleviation.

The week’s activities included

  • presentations from each country, looking at the successes and challenges of implementing the Frontiers Prevention Project;
  • talk shows on ‘vulnerability and rights’ and ‘engaging and influencing policy makers’, giving participants the opportunity to share their personal experiences of stigma and discrimination, vulnerability and human rights violations, and to share methods of engaging with policy makers, including opportunities to acquire funding, and to counter negative views that limit the work of key populations;
  • a marketplace on community organizing, where participants gave poster presentations, shared learning, and displayed resources and health promotion materials developed as part of the Frontiers Prevention Project; and
  • the launch of the Unheard Voices, Hidden Lives exhibition and book.

Project celebration concluded with a one-day policy event in London on 17 November – Universal access: delivering on the promise for key populations. This was an opportunity to share the week’s learning with an external audience, including policy and decision makers and non-governmental organisations. It was also an opportunity to explore some of the successes and challenges in scaling up the provision of HIV services for populations key to the epidemic, in the context of the commitment to universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

Representatives from UNAIDS and the UK’s Department for International Development spoke at the meeting, and panel discussions looked at community organising and implications for policy and programming.