Dr Nesha Haniff is Senior Programme Advisor to Jamaica AIDS Support for Life and a lecturer at the University of Michigan. She dropped in at the Caribbean Lyming Zone to put her feet up and indulged in a gaff about the conference so far.
She said that she felt that this year, there were more black people visible and present. She was particularly happy at the visibility of South Africans - in the plenary sessions and on many panels. This is new and a massive shift from the time when as Bill Clinton noted, South Africa was a pariah in terms of its response to HIV and the advocacy and representation for South Africa was done by white researchers.
She feels this is happening with Haiti and that people who are not Haitians are speaking for Haiti. She cited an example as to how Bill Clinton referred to Paul Farmer from Partners in Health as the Haitian saviour. This point she tried to address at the PANCAP plenary, noting that the names of the Haitian doctors and others on the ground should be visible and their voices heard in fora such as the AIDS Conference.
She felt that the Caribbean work is becoming visible - with one study cited in the opening plenary , Robert Carr's active participation in the conference and the panel about HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean.
Dr Haniff was born in Guyana and worked there before moving to Jamaica. Her speciality is in the area of Gender and HIV/AIDS
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