Please Unite with Us to March & Rally for Prevention Justice!
Tuesday, December 4 / 4:30 – 6:00 PM

Shining a Light on Gaps in HIV Prevention March & Rally for Prevention Justice Gather across the street from the Hyatt Hotel (corner of Baker St & Peachtree St NE) at Hardy Ivy Park for a peaceful march and spirited rally.

7:00 – 9:00 PM

Prevention Justice Dinner & Strategy Session After the March & Rally, join us for a dinner and session at St. Luke’s Church, 435 Peachtree St., NE, 2 1/2 blocks from the Hyatt Hotel

Why Prevention Justice? HIV prevention efforts in the United States have traditionally focused on individual behavior. Yet two individuals from different communities can engage in the same activities but have different levels of risk for HIV. Prevention Justice demands that we increase our resources to understand why certain communities bear a higher burden of HIV while others, even though they have the same levels of “individual risk activity,” do not.

Prevention Justice believes that the best way to prevent HIV/AIDS is to ensure that all people have the economic, social, and political power and resources to make healthy decisions about our bodies, sexuality, and reproduction for ourselves, our families, and our communities.

Prevention Justice means the people and communities most affected by the epidemic are at the forefront of policy efforts, and that HIV prevention cannot be separated from human rights.

We are united in demanding leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS and justice in prevention policies, including:

More funding for HIV prevention efforts, with universal access to sexual health education, harm reduction and other forms of effective HIV prevention

• Comprehensive efforts to address the root causes of disparities in HIV infection

• Research for a broader range of HIV prevention intervention and tools

• An end to censorship and misinformation in HIV prevention

The independent community blog at the 2007 NHPC needs your voice:

www.PreventionJustice.org Link

Visit us at Booth #324 in the Exhibit Hall or contact Josh Thomas * 917-539-7016 * josh@champnetwork.org

Link to download a printer quality PDF is here. Link

AIDSVote.org is a candidate education and voter education project working to make sure candidates for public office know what it takes to end AIDS, and voters who care about ending AIDS know where the candidates stand on our issues.

The AIDSVote.org platform is a straightforward roadmap for our next President—it leads directly to the end of AIDS as a killer pandemic in America and around the world. We’ve got a ten-point domestic AIDS plan and a ten-point global AIDS plan with clear recommendations for public and private action to save lives, prevent new infections, and address the social conditions that drive the pandemic.

The AIDSVote.org has already been endorsed by dozens of the nation’s leading AIDS groups, and by leading service and advocacy organizations in key early-primary states. We’re working closely with the 08 Stop AIDS campaign (www.08stopaids.org) to highlight global and domestic AIDS issues in public events with the candidates. We’ll be holding national conference calls during 2008 to explain how nonprofit groups can do election-year advocacy that’s safe, legal and effective. And we’ll be helping voters who care about HIV/AIDS understand the positions of candidates on life-and-death domestic and global AIDS issues.

Please take the time to visit AIDSVote.org, endorse the platform, and spread this message widely. This year World AIDS Day is on a Saturday – next year World AIDS Day will really be on Election Day.

Check out the AIDSVote website here: www.aidsvote.org

Full details on the platform are at www.aidsvote.org/platform.

Endorse the platform here: Link

World AIDS Day, observed December 1 each year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection. AIDS has killed more than 25 million people, with an estimated 38.6 million people living with HIV, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history. Despite recent, improved access to antiretroviral treatment and care in many regions of the world, the AIDS epidemic claimed an estimated 3.1 million (between 2.8 and 3.6 million) lives in 2005 of which, more than half a million (570,000) were children.

The concept of a World AIDS Day originated at the 1988 World Summit of Ministers of Health on Programmes for AIDS Prevention. Since then, it has been taken up by governments, international organizations and charities around the world.

From its inception until 2004, UNAIDS spearheaded the World AIDS Day campaign, choosing annual themes in consultation with other global health organizations. In 2005 this responsibility was turned over to World AIDS Campaign (WAC), who chose Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise as the main theme for World AIDS Day observences through 2010, with more specific sub-taglines chosen annually. This theme is not specific to World AIDS Day, but is used year-round in WAC’s efforts to highlight HIV/AIDS awareness within the context of other major global events including the G8 Summit. World AIDS Campaign also conducts “in-country” campaigns throughout the world, like the Student Stop AIDS Campaign, an infection-awareness campaign targeting young people throughout the UK.
World AIDS Day banner, European Commission building, Brussels
World AIDS Day banner, European Commission building, Brussels
A 67 m long “condom” on the Obelisk of Buenos Aires, Argentina, part of an awareness campaign for the 2005 World AIDS Day
A 67 m long “condom” on the Obelisk of Buenos Aires, Argentina, part of an awareness campaign for the 2005 World AIDS Day

It is common to hold memorials to honor persons who have died from HIV/AIDS on this day. Government and health officials also observe, often with speeches or forums on the AIDS topics. Since 1995 the President of the United States has made an official proclamation on World AIDS Day. Governments of other nations have followed suit and issued similar announcements.

Activists “Die-In” to Save Lives in Puerto Rico

Activists, people living with HIV and employees of the New York-based AIDS service organization Housing Works convened earlier today, November 14, in Foley Square in downtown Manhattan to call for immediate federal control of Puerto Rico’s AIDS funding. Other attending organizations included CitiWide Harm Reduction, Unidos Danole Cara al Sida (UDCAS) NY and the Washington Heights CORNER Project.

The group held a press conference—which included speeches by Housing Works employees Tamara Oyola-Santiago and Marcelo Vanegas, among others—followed immediately by a march to the intersection of Broadway and Worth street, where a dozen protesters chanted “Puerto Rico AIDS Crisis: Save Lives Now!” before police intervened 20 minutes later. Protesters lay down in the middle of the street in a “die in,” requiring two dozen police officers to remove and arrest them. The group was released from custody roughly two hours later.

Fraudulent government activity, corruption and complacency have led to a noted lack of HIV/AIDS care in the U.S. commonwealth territory. While Puerto Rico received $58.4 million in Ryan White CARE Act funding last year, distribution to groups servicing the island’s 30,000 positive people has been slow.

Last December, the FBI, the IRS and the Human Services Office of the Inspector General confiscated thousands of files from the offices of Puerto Rico’s AIDS organizations and froze millions of dollars in Ryan White CARE Act Title I funds. In addition, hundreds wait for medication despite claims by the health department that there is no longer an AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) waiting list.

Today’s action was preceded yesterday by a “phone zap” aimed at Puerto Rican Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila and San Juan Mayor Jorge Santini Padilla in order to draw attention to Puerto Rico’s poor management of AIDS funds. Activists with Housing Works, the Latino Commission on AIDS, the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project, UDCAS NY and UDCAS Puerto Rico participated in the zap, keeping phones ringing to ensure the attention of the two leaders.

For updates on this and other Housing Works actions, visit hwupdate.org.  POZ Link