HIV video fest

Mini film festivals were a key part of the Community and Advocacy Hubs hosted by AFAO at ASHM’s last two national HIV conferences, and also at AIDS 2014. 

This year, once again, we had an awesome selection of videos from our members and other HIV sector partners, with the videos running on a continuous loop between Hub presentations.

Here’s a selection from the program. There were so many that we can’t share them all, so make sure you click through to the organisations’ channels for more.

Are Young Gay Men really so different?

On Thursday 20^th February AFAO hosted an after hours session at the Social Research Conference on HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Related Diseases. Chaired by AFAO’s Sally Cameron, the session provided a venue for the consideration of the specific HIV health promotion needs of young gay men.

Advocacy Corner at the ASHM Conference

Ryan Snaith from Kenya Aid

An Advocacy Corner in the Exhibition Hall was a new addition to ASHM's (Australasian Society for HIV Medicine) HIV/AIDS Conference in Melbourne this year.

The corner, organised by AFAO, created a space to discuss the work and issues of the HIV community sector, both here in Australia and internationally. There were several great discussions held throughout the week, two of which I was lucky enough to attend as host.

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.

Going social

Social media & Web 2.0 are now such a ‘given’ in health promotion and HIV prevention work that having a session dedicated to social media at a conference almost becomes redundant. The recent AFAO/NAPWA Gay Men’s Health Promotion Conference was no exception, with social media and the web ubiquitous throughout the program.

A number of presentations – such as Carlos Sepulvada’s Down an’ dirty presentation, or Nadine Toussaint’s 1 Community – described how interactive websites, Facebook, and other online strategies contributed to community engagement and effective promotion of key messages. Often, as in the case of the 1 Community anti-stigma campaign, the online component was carefully integrated with offline activities.