eHealth – trials without tribulations

The 2nd Annual PCEHR Conference: The Journey Towards National eHealth Adoption, held in Sydney on 27 May, highlighted some interesting findings that demonstrated how keen many people with HIV have been to register for their own eHealth record.

According to the latest information from the government, there are now 155,000 registered users of the eHealth record. There has been a significant rise in registrations since assisted registration began earlier this year. Assisted registration enables healthcare organisations to help their patients with the process of signing up for an eHealth record.

Leading gay advocate talks Human Rights and HIV

Australia has been very fortunate to have visit our shores one of the world’s leading human rights advocates, South African Justice Edwin Cameron. Edwin Cameron is of course well-known to many in the HIV sector, due to his coming-out publicly as HIV-positive. He is the only public official across the continent of Africa to have disclosed his positive status (more on his interesting reflections on that later in this post).

Protest against funding cuts to Welfare Rights Centre

Cutting the cake, but no celebration on Welfare Rights' 30th birthday

In April, the NSW State Government sent shock-waves through the community sector when it announced that it was stripping community advocacy organsiation, Welfare Rights Centre, of all its State Government funding.

The decision will see $404,000 withdrawn from the organisation, representing 40% of its total funding.

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.

Call for reform of anti-homosexuality laws across the Commonwealth

There has been renewed debate recently about the need to reform laws that criminalise homosexuality across the Commonwealth, driven by the signing by the Queen of the Commonwealth Charter in London last week.

In the UK's House of Lords on 13 March, there was an extensive discussion about the barriers that these laws present to responding to HIV, not to mention the denial of human rights generally as a result of these laws.

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:

Addressing human rights for orphans affected by HIV in Nepal

Children at the Punarbul Plus school.

Volunteer Rachel Tyne brings you this update on Punarbal Plus, a School in Nepal that provides educational opportunities and a supportive environment for HIV-positive and affected children, who are unable to access mainstream schooling due to stigma and discrimination. AFAO's small grants program funding supported core operational costs for the program from May 2008 until 2012.