New publication puts focus on HIV in Asia and the Pacific

18 November 2013, Bangkok, Thailand - On the eve of this year's International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP11) - the largest HIV conference in the region -  two leading community HIV organisations, the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO) and the Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health (APCOM) , have released a special edition of AFAO's flagship publication, HIV Australia, discussing HIV in Asia and the Pacific.

The special edition aims to create discussion around the significant human rights, HIV and funding gap issues for men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender people. These issues include:

• Across the Asia Pacific region, rates of new infection have decreased among the general population but continue to grow among MSM and transgender populations.
• Young MSM are at particular risk. One study from Bangkok showed that over a 5-year period, 30% of the young men involved in the study became infected with HIV.
• Globally, transgender women are up to 48 times more likely to have HIV than other adults in the same population. Rates of HIV among transgender groups were: 43% in India, 26% in Indonesia and 12.5% in Thailand.

AFAO Advocacy Hub: the Asia Pacific HIV response

L-R: Janelle Fawkes, Chris Connelly, Omar Syarif, and
Ele Morrison. 

Each day at the Australasian HIV/AIDS conference in Darwin, AFAO is hosting a Community and Advocacy Hub. Hub activities include a mini-film festival, panel discussions and open mic sessions.

Today at the AFAO Hub, there was a wide-ranging discussion from AIVL, APN+, AFAO and Scarlet Alliance about the need for longer term funding to sustain community based responses in Asia and the Pacific.

Omar Syarif from APN+ highlighted need to scale up access to treatment, address legal barriers, and trade agreements.

Ele Morrison from AIVL talked about need to support drug users to advocate for themselves.

Janelle Fawkes from Scarlet Alliance highlighted the need to fund over long term the development of viable sex worker organisations.

Chris Connelly from AFAO's international program, discussed how AFAO has supported the development of MSM and TG community based organisations, with Kapul Champions in PNG being the most recent successful example.

Rob Lake, AFAO Executive Director, commented that Australia has a great interest in ensuring that international trade agreements, including the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, do not create barriers to accessing life saving treatments across the region.

More info about the Hub

Best practice: Community Advocacy Initiative in Laos (CAI)

CAI Phase I advocacy workshops with Lao
CBO partners

The work of Community Advocacy Initiative (CAI) in Lao has been featured in the recently released 'Global AIDS Response Progress Country Report, Lao PDR, 2012', as one of five best practice examples to illustrate contributions to the national HIV response.

CAI, a capacity building project of AFAO and APCASO (Asia Pacific Coalition of AIDS Service Organisations) was implemented in Indonesia, Cambodia, China, Lao and Vietnam from 2009 - 2012.

Introducing Chris Connelly – the new Manager for AFAO International

Chris has just joined the International team at our Bangkok office.

He was recently visiting the Sydney office and we thought AFAO's friends and partners might like to know a bit more about him, so we asked him a few questions about how he came to be working for AFAO and what the International team is up to this year.

Reflections about Anthony Smith

Many people have been saddened by the recent death of our colleague and friend, Professor Anthony Smith. Anthony was widely known both in Australia and internationally for his work as an outstanding researcher, and also for his passion as an HIV activist
spanning some 25 years.

Dino Hodge and Terry McClafferty were colleagues of Anthony Smith during his time on the Northern Territory AIDS Council (NTAC) Board during the late 1980 and early 1990s.  Here they reflect on Anthony's life, and the lasting contributions he has made to Australia's response to HIV.

Dino Hodge was on the board of NTAC between 1989-1992. As a fellow Board Member, including in his capacity as a member of The NTAC Council Law and Policy Working Group, he worked closely alongside Anthony Smith.  Dino recalls:

Indonesian HIV workers visit Australia

Yanti Susanti, ALAF delegate, speaking

at the ALAF Program launch at AFAO

On 18 September, a delegation of 11 Indonesian HIV sector workers arrived in Australia to participate in an education program about Australia's HIV response.

The delegates are being hosted by AFAO with funding support through the AusAID Australian Leadership Awards Fellowships (ALAF) program.