reflecting the blogger's biases and prejudices..
So, the last day. The session was co-chaired by Dr Anita Radix (with links to Grenada) and Dr Jean Pape (with links to Haiti), two distinguished scientists. The first discussion by Dr Donald Simeon of CHRC said that HIV and chronic disease prevention are making good progress in the region, while there is no progress on mental health.. you could tell judging by some of the goings on in the regions, ah mean, mad people never say dey mad right?
So apparently tings not too bad by international standards, some countries better than others. Cuba doing good.
Suzette Moses Burton spoke of civil society involvement in HIV work, and gave the lesson of CRN+ (the website last update in 2007 before their global fund grant get pull). She spoke of the celebration of when they first got the grant, and how things started to go haywire for some reason. This resulted in devastation for the caribbean people living with HIV AIDS who were trying to organise themselves to better access services. Or in short, eye pass from the Global Fund.
The eye pass continues when it seemed that some donors say that they will not fund CRN plus unless CRN change its governance structure and the people there.
Marcus Day from CVC continued the discussion about civil society, moving from his normally brash tone to one which was a lil weird and sounded almost apologist for the donors who very picky and choosey and he talked about the two boarding passes which got to be handed in. He say CVC is not a gatekeeper,and that they have been able to establish a sex workers association and a trans association. Marcus say dat dere must be some harmony between the passion of civil society and the donors er procedures.. and den he talk about grinding, and CVC and Pancap grinding.i Now.. I get dizzy, what he and mr brown does grind? And something about how they like two stone dat grind until they get smooth.. now.. surely dat is not wat civil society supposed to do wid de donors.. safer sex includes frottage.. but this?
Marcus said that a recent sexual health workshop which involved health care providers and men of all sexual orientations was a good example of the kind of interactions which the donors need to support and fund and follow through. (Not sure if anybody grinding wid anybody dere)
The final panel was from Kerrel McKay from the Jamaican youth programme and the work being done to deal with young persons living with HIV AIDS. As with all Government programmes, it sound nice and so on. What I like , is how like Donnellis , she start up with the Bob Marley, Usain Bolt and White Beaches promoting Jamaica. Cynics like me want to say what about Beenie Man, Dudus Coke and Tivoli Gardens.. but Jamaicans like dat.. dey dont hold back on de positive. After her presentation, a paediatrician added to the discussion about the work being done with the children who are now grown and the provision of services for those children, including psycho social support.
A lady from somewhere tell Suzette that the passion for the work got to be the same as the passion for project management and that civil society implements better than Governments. Somebody ask about the situation in Haiti, and Dr Pape say dat with regards to HIV , the situation is the same as before the earthquake. (Language is a funny ting, dat could mean it just as good or just as bad). Dr Pape say dat dey are concerned with TB, since TB infections are rising.
Den a white man stand up and say that he flabbergasted since there is increased sexual violence, no services for MSM and other vulnerable populations. The Burnham in me rise up and say what the ... who is dis man fuh cuss up de haitian doctor.. and den de odder part in me, is like wheh de rass de haitian msm to ask this question in this Caribbean forum? And the white man mek a point about the absence of people living with HIV from any Haitian discourse. And the rest of we shut up because we dont really know nuttin about haiti and we cant talk French.
Mr Charles from Grenada asked why Dr Simeon did not include the OECS in his presentation - Dr Simeon said that it was not intentional but he was sampling to compare. People were not too convinced at this response.
The time was near finishing, in fact the time always near to done. Donnellis also made a point that people who are positive should be free to decide when they want to disclose.
Sharon Mottley from CCNAPC spoke of the importance of sharing information so that people could see how the regional policies were being implemented in some countries. A lady with a nice musical accent voice ask a question about media and source of information . I stupidy, I only remember the voice, but not what she really say. Was trying to see if the lady was nice looking as the voice but the room was dark.
At some point Dr Radix said, time to go. As with all the sessions, there was not enough time to ask questions or interact.
Showing posts with label jamaica. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jamaica. Show all posts
Friday, July 23, 2010
Plenty Caribbean gaff...
This is the first conference for Dudley from FOKO in Curaçao. He said that the conference is interesting but he will need time when he goes back home to digest all the information. He is also assisting with rapporteuring for the Global Village. He has attended sessions related to health care, and he has found the sessions where persons living with HIV gave their testimonies to be the most powerful. The session on prevention and pleasure which Donnellis participated in was one which was vivid to him. The testimony from the HIV positive young man from Romania who keeps wondering if he will infect his girlfriend, and the testimony from the young woman from Lebanon are two that stay in his mind.
Dudley said that standing on the other side as a service provider, he is aware that he has to stand back now and help to create a safe space so that people who are living with HIV who he is working with can speak out for themselves. This he believes will help to fight stigma and discrimination. He also liked the sessions which showed how to use theatre to educate.
Ivan from Jamaica said that the conference covers a wide range of issues and that the competing choices meant that it was impossible to have deeper learning of the issues. The timing of the panels do not allow time for enough questions. He was happy to hear of the progress with microbicides and this will energise the microbicide working group of which CVC is part in Jamaica. He liked the energy in the Global Village and the exhibition hall. The emphasis on the condomise campaign was good. He was appalled at the wastage of paper and thought that more use would have been made of CDROMs and other soft distribution mechanisms. He liked the use of tee shirts for the sustainable messages. The Liming Zone has also been great, in that a wide cross-section of Caribbean people have visited the zone and have found it a place to reconnect.
One of the presentations which stuck out in his mind is a stigma and discrimination presentation in which the presenter showed a graphical model for stigma and discrimination. The model concludes that stigma is related to other perceptions of social identity - such as gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc and that those prejudices have to be dealt with so as to remove the stigma related to HIV
Kenita from St Lucia said the conference was interesting but there were too many sessions, and she felt that she could not benefit from all of them. She said some of the workshops she went to did not meet her expectations and she found she had to be rushing from one thing to another. She was really impressed with the youths from the Dominican Republic who organised the Caribbean Youth Forum. She also enjoyed the panel about stigma and discrimination from the faith based organisations, and she wondered whether they talked one way in some places and then in other places, they changed their mouth. She enjoyed the session in the Women's Networking Zone and the LGBTI networking zone, and she hoped that next time the Caribbean Zone would also organise sessions the same way.
The Human Rights Rally was great, she and Dandrina from Barbados managed to get almost front row positions for the Annie Lennox concert.
Beverley from Trinidad said she enjoyed the workshops - mostly run by African NGOs and that she found them useful to her work as a trainer. She say she not having no food problem because she bring she food from Trinidad, she have Crix biscuit and she had drinks and water. She also have a flask wid ice because she realise dey dont serve ice. Beverley say she aint able wid no talk talk in the big presentations. Shelly from Trinidad say dat de conference arite too. Sherwood from Guyana is here with the ILO and he has been active in all of the presentations related to workplace discrimination and he participated in the Human Rights rally. He said that he thinks that there should have been a bit more visibility at the conference for the right to work/employment issue as it relates to people who live with HIV.
Bernard from St Lucia has been doing his work with the housing people. He has learnt a lot and feels much more knowledgeable about how to advocate on housing. One interesting strategy is how they build bridges with other movements - his supervisor told him to go to the Trucking Clinic booth from South Africa. It was fascinating to listen to the exchange, when Bernard started to explain where he came from and it caught the clinic guy off guard. It was kind of like if one person advocates for environment and the other advocates for sexuality rights.. how to link the two.
The journalists dem cagey... Iana from Guyana said her workshop with the NPF was excellent, but she found that it was hectic running between sessions. She found many Jamaicans though, and one woman who had a Guyana badge but was actually from Trinidad. The woman left the badge as it was.
People had all kind ah nice experience too. Marcus say a lady from Kenya ask him to be she baby father - apparently one of the conference activities which they do not schedule is baby making. She HIV positive, but Marcus say dat was not de issue, is just dat he don't want to make a child who would be in Kenya. He did not meet the woman face to face just in case he change he mind.
Dudley said that standing on the other side as a service provider, he is aware that he has to stand back now and help to create a safe space so that people who are living with HIV who he is working with can speak out for themselves. This he believes will help to fight stigma and discrimination. He also liked the sessions which showed how to use theatre to educate.
Ivan from Jamaica said that the conference covers a wide range of issues and that the competing choices meant that it was impossible to have deeper learning of the issues. The timing of the panels do not allow time for enough questions. He was happy to hear of the progress with microbicides and this will energise the microbicide working group of which CVC is part in Jamaica. He liked the energy in the Global Village and the exhibition hall. The emphasis on the condomise campaign was good. He was appalled at the wastage of paper and thought that more use would have been made of CDROMs and other soft distribution mechanisms. He liked the use of tee shirts for the sustainable messages. The Liming Zone has also been great, in that a wide cross-section of Caribbean people have visited the zone and have found it a place to reconnect.
One of the presentations which stuck out in his mind is a stigma and discrimination presentation in which the presenter showed a graphical model for stigma and discrimination. The model concludes that stigma is related to other perceptions of social identity - such as gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc and that those prejudices have to be dealt with so as to remove the stigma related to HIV
Kenita from St Lucia said the conference was interesting but there were too many sessions, and she felt that she could not benefit from all of them. She said some of the workshops she went to did not meet her expectations and she found she had to be rushing from one thing to another. She was really impressed with the youths from the Dominican Republic who organised the Caribbean Youth Forum. She also enjoyed the panel about stigma and discrimination from the faith based organisations, and she wondered whether they talked one way in some places and then in other places, they changed their mouth. She enjoyed the session in the Women's Networking Zone and the LGBTI networking zone, and she hoped that next time the Caribbean Zone would also organise sessions the same way.
The Human Rights Rally was great, she and Dandrina from Barbados managed to get almost front row positions for the Annie Lennox concert.
Beverley from Trinidad said she enjoyed the workshops - mostly run by African NGOs and that she found them useful to her work as a trainer. She say she not having no food problem because she bring she food from Trinidad, she have Crix biscuit and she had drinks and water. She also have a flask wid ice because she realise dey dont serve ice. Beverley say she aint able wid no talk talk in the big presentations. Shelly from Trinidad say dat de conference arite too. Sherwood from Guyana is here with the ILO and he has been active in all of the presentations related to workplace discrimination and he participated in the Human Rights rally. He said that he thinks that there should have been a bit more visibility at the conference for the right to work/employment issue as it relates to people who live with HIV.
Bernard from St Lucia has been doing his work with the housing people. He has learnt a lot and feels much more knowledgeable about how to advocate on housing. One interesting strategy is how they build bridges with other movements - his supervisor told him to go to the Trucking Clinic booth from South Africa. It was fascinating to listen to the exchange, when Bernard started to explain where he came from and it caught the clinic guy off guard. It was kind of like if one person advocates for environment and the other advocates for sexuality rights.. how to link the two.
The journalists dem cagey... Iana from Guyana said her workshop with the NPF was excellent, but she found that it was hectic running between sessions. She found many Jamaicans though, and one woman who had a Guyana badge but was actually from Trinidad. The woman left the badge as it was.
People had all kind ah nice experience too. Marcus say a lady from Kenya ask him to be she baby father - apparently one of the conference activities which they do not schedule is baby making. She HIV positive, but Marcus say dat was not de issue, is just dat he don't want to make a child who would be in Kenya. He did not meet the woman face to face just in case he change he mind.
Talk and Party..
PANCAP hosted a Caribbean evening on Wed 21 July, 2010. The thing had food so they was careful about who and who dey inviting and one person was asked if they know how much of the youth dem was coming since.. well Caribbean youth belly lang. The PANCAP social evening overlapped with the Caribbean Youth Forum and it seems dat plenty of de youth dem just aint bother to go because dey was tired or dey didn know. Some people went in a bit late so dey missed de opening remarks.
Ian from Jamaica say dat dere was too much talk talk, and too little partying - party estimates are about 15 minutes to 30 minutes depending on who you ask (some people come late, some lef early). Tony from Jamaica say he went an eat an den went to de ting, and dat de ting was nice and dat it was nice to see de ladies from de Jamaica AIDS programme dancing an ting.. he could not say if dey was playing any chi chi man music or so.
Mario from Curacao said he spoke out about the need for decriminalisation of same sex consensual relationships or all the programmes will be bullshit. He also say dat people have to let the youth's voices be heard. Apparently, a lady from Grenada spoke about the advances being made in the region. After he talk dat, he say nobody from the officials dere come up and say nothing to him except one of the people who say dat is true, the lobbying and advocacy has to be "shrill" sometimes. Dandrina from Barbados say dat de ting was nice, people gaff and so. Steve from Haiti say he did not go because he feels alienated from Pancap and that tokenism is not what is needed. Dudley from Curacao say it was nice to mix wid other Caribbean people and dat de music was good. Kenita from St Lucia say dat by de time she reach, she aint see too many NGO people, it seem dat was mostly government and inter-governmental organisation people. She was happy that Senator Ann Peters spoke at the Caribbean gathering.
A lady from Pancap say dat de evening was nice and she was glad Mario say what he had to say, but she lef early because she was tired. Some of de odder Caribbean people say dat dey did not know about de event. One or two foreigners who pope the event say that they enjoyed.
Marcus say that it was fantastic, that at the beginning it was just official administrators there and then when all the trans and the vulnerable groups come, the mood change and party tek ovah... and plenty straight people lef and a pancap man open some 15 year old el dorado and apparently.. well there are no pictures as to whether he borrow any of the dresses or hair pieces of the trans to celebrate Caribbean diversity
Ivan from Jamaica say dat de ting was what Caribbean like do, talk and party.
Ian from Jamaica say dat dere was too much talk talk, and too little partying - party estimates are about 15 minutes to 30 minutes depending on who you ask (some people come late, some lef early). Tony from Jamaica say he went an eat an den went to de ting, and dat de ting was nice and dat it was nice to see de ladies from de Jamaica AIDS programme dancing an ting.. he could not say if dey was playing any chi chi man music or so.
Mario from Curacao said he spoke out about the need for decriminalisation of same sex consensual relationships or all the programmes will be bullshit. He also say dat people have to let the youth's voices be heard. Apparently, a lady from Grenada spoke about the advances being made in the region. After he talk dat, he say nobody from the officials dere come up and say nothing to him except one of the people who say dat is true, the lobbying and advocacy has to be "shrill" sometimes. Dandrina from Barbados say dat de ting was nice, people gaff and so. Steve from Haiti say he did not go because he feels alienated from Pancap and that tokenism is not what is needed. Dudley from Curacao say it was nice to mix wid other Caribbean people and dat de music was good. Kenita from St Lucia say dat by de time she reach, she aint see too many NGO people, it seem dat was mostly government and inter-governmental organisation people. She was happy that Senator Ann Peters spoke at the Caribbean gathering.
A lady from Pancap say dat de evening was nice and she was glad Mario say what he had to say, but she lef early because she was tired. Some of de odder Caribbean people say dat dey did not know about de event. One or two foreigners who pope the event say that they enjoyed.
Marcus say that it was fantastic, that at the beginning it was just official administrators there and then when all the trans and the vulnerable groups come, the mood change and party tek ovah... and plenty straight people lef and a pancap man open some 15 year old el dorado and apparently.. well there are no pictures as to whether he borrow any of the dresses or hair pieces of the trans to celebrate Caribbean diversity
Ivan from Jamaica say dat de ting was what Caribbean like do, talk and party.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Youth Pre-Conference was basic...
Yajira, Elias and Daniel from the Dominican Republic, Korey from Guyana,attended the Jaevion from Jamaica attended the Youth Pre-conference
This is the first conference for Yajira and she said she was excited at meeting other young persons from across the world who are also working in HIV/AIDS. Elias, Daniel, Korey and Jaevion said that they thought the pre-conference was basic in that it did not offer much in the way of depth. Korey said he picked up some points on monitoring and evaluation for information programmes. These youth have been working in HIV/AIDS and thus they were a bit disappointed that the conference did not offer more in depth discussion and presentations. In terms of what they had given to the conference, they all said that they were happy to share ideas with other people.
Jaevion felt that his presentation on Conversations for Change was enjoyed by they participants, which included other Caribbean youth who do not identify as LGBT. Daniel, Elias and Yajira also said it was good to share information about Dominican Republic and to let others know about their country.
The youth are participating in other activities. The Jamaica Youth Advocacy network had a poster presentation in the main conference, while Korey has chaired a major panel discussion.
The Caribbean Youth Forum will be held on 21st and 22nd July, 2010 and the youth hope to raise other specific issues for the Caribbean governments.
This is the first conference for Yajira and she said she was excited at meeting other young persons from across the world who are also working in HIV/AIDS. Elias, Daniel, Korey and Jaevion said that they thought the pre-conference was basic in that it did not offer much in the way of depth. Korey said he picked up some points on monitoring and evaluation for information programmes. These youth have been working in HIV/AIDS and thus they were a bit disappointed that the conference did not offer more in depth discussion and presentations. In terms of what they had given to the conference, they all said that they were happy to share ideas with other people.
Jaevion felt that his presentation on Conversations for Change was enjoyed by they participants, which included other Caribbean youth who do not identify as LGBT. Daniel, Elias and Yajira also said it was good to share information about Dominican Republic and to let others know about their country.
The youth are participating in other activities. The Jamaica Youth Advocacy network had a poster presentation in the main conference, while Korey has chaired a major panel discussion.
The Caribbean Youth Forum will be held on 21st and 22nd July, 2010 and the youth hope to raise other specific issues for the Caribbean governments.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Caribbean people join protest to say that "Broken Promises Kill"
Hundreds of persons present at AIDS 2010 joined the protest "Broken Promises Kill" to make a point at the opening of the conference about the need to fund treatment for HIV/AIDS
Some photos are here (Thanks to Jasmin Blessing for lending her Camera and the friendly journalist who loaned her USB Cable)
Ivan from Jamaica
Bernard from St Lucia, holding the IAHR banner
More pictures to come...
Some photos are here (Thanks to Jasmin Blessing for lending her Camera and the friendly journalist who loaned her USB Cable)
Sebastian, from St Lucia
Ivan from Jamaica
More pictures to come...
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