Archives: Media Releases

In July the National AIDS Commission (Belize) and the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVCC) partnered on several training sessions designed to empower and strengthen civil society organizations (CSOs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and key populations involved in the HIV and AIDS response in Belize. These sessions were done in Belize City and Dangriga Town, which are considered high burden areas. The main objectives of the sessions were:

– To have greater support and involvement of CSOs in the HIV and AIDS response
– To strengthen linkages between communities and the health care systems
– To identify barriers, gaps, areas of synergy, and future action that will assist in reaching the 90-90-90 targets

The sessions entitled ‘Reaching the 90-90-90 targets in the Caribbean through Local Authority and Civil Society Partnerships’, were facilitated by Dr Carolyn Gomes, Executive Director of CVCC and her co-facilitator Ms Kandasi Levermore, Executive Director of Jamaica AIDS Support for Life (JASL). These were completed in Belize City on July 18th-19th and in Dangriga Town on July 20th-21st and focused primarily on how to achieve the treatment targets for the Caribbean and provided an in-depth overview of the HIV and AIDS situation in the Caribbean and Latin America as well as exploring the achievement of the 90-90-90 targets by 2020.

In her discussion, Dr Gomes explained that in 2015, donors provided governments with $7.53 billion US dollars for HIV Programmes, a 13% decline in funding since 2014 due to competing priorities, humanitarian emergencies, refugee crises, and fiscal austerity among other factors. As funding gaps threaten to derail the response to HIV patients, countries will increasingly need to fill gaps and find more efficient and cost effective ways to fund their response. A survey of HIV focused organizations, conducted by UNAIDS in 2012 and 2013, revealed that the majority of respondents reported experiencing decreases in funds for HIV and human rights related work.

The experiences with the PANCAP Round 9 Grant work with CSOs reveal that there is a need for greater prioritisation of key interventions that are evidence based and target individuals at highest risk, as well as the need for early and wide dissemination of findings and frank discussion of epidemiological data. NGOs and other implementers need to be provided with guidance on the focus their programmes should adopt as well as build local authority and civil society partnerships for greater success.

Dr Gomes and Ms Levermore spoke about the need for a collaborative response in order to reach collective national and regional goals. With regard to CSOs and government, there needs to be a strengthening of dialogue in order to have more partnerships and collaboration between all parties.

On July 26th the National AIDS Commission, Centro de Orientacion E Investigacion Intergral (COIN) and CVCC collaborated to address the needs and capacities of the populations served by the NAC during a one-day session entitled: ‘Challenging Stigma and Discrimination to improve access to and quality Of HIV Services in the Caribbean’.

Mr Ivan Cruickshank, CVC representative and programme facilitator opened the session with a statement of intent and the shared programme objectives which were to review and assess agency/country specific advocacy plans, to assess relevance in response to changing circumstances; to improve knowledge sharing among partner agencies, share lessons learned so others can benefit from their experiences; to develop a National Advocacy Plan using data (both quantitative and qualitative) to inform advocacy, and make arguments that support policy proposals to help make advocacy efforts more viable. The exercise included the development of effective advocacy messages specifically for target audiences.

The purpose of the session was the empowerment of advocates to move their agendas forward, hence local agencies were asked to present on their experiences within Belize and how systems help to uphold their rights and causes. Presenting agencies were: UNIBAM, CNET+, PETAL, Our Circle and TIA Belize. After the presentations and group discussion, Mr Cruickshank engaged participants in the development of a national advocacy action plan which focused on alleviating treatment care and support issues for populations, to promote legislative reform that advances anti-discrimination, stream line health services for key populations and to highlight the effects of adult ARVs on children which were tied to increasing the number of persons accessing and retained on treatment country wide to contribute to the 90-90-90 Targets.

From July 27th to 28th, the NAC and CVC embarked on a CSO directed Legal Literacy workshop as a part of a three-year regional project entitled ‘Challenging Stigma and Discrimination to Improve Access to and Quality of HIV services in the Caribbean’. The project is being implemented in eight countries in the Caribbean including Belize.

The programme is designed to build the capacity of members of various key populations to identify and address discrimination and to contribute to increased community participation in decision making in the national HIV and AIDS response.

Visit the NAC (Belize) website here.

The Knowledge for Health project (Baltimore, Maryland) tested the WhatsApp Messenger platform as a mode to deliver family planning continued professional development training content to Kenyan health workers and promote knowledge exchange and discussion.

A seven-week training programme on healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy (HTSP) was designed and delivered to 160 participants. The findings from the training activity reveal that WhatsApp is well-received as a platform for continuing professional development. Implementation of the activity also led to a number of lessons learned around training setup, facilitation, and active participation. To read the full report click here.

‘OpenWHO’ is WHO’s new interactive, web-based, knowledge-transfer platform offering online courses to improve the response to health emergencies. OpenWHO enables the Organization and its key partners to transfer life-saving knowledge to large numbers of frontline responders. To access click here.

Storytelling is an incredibly powerful tool for social and behaviour change. It inspires people to view a topic in a new way or motivate them to make a positive change in their lives. Traditionally, storytelling has been done through face-to-face conversations. However, increased access to mobile phones and social media has changed the way that people can share and hear stories, as well as expanded the number of people reached by one person’s story.

Please join the Health Communication Capacity Collaborative (HC3) on Wednesday, August 23 from 9:00 – 10:00 am EDT to hear about the experiences of young sexual and reproductive health (SRH) champions who have used storytelling to mobilize others around the topic. Speakers will give tips for making quality and engaging videos and positively interacting with viewers. HC3 will also launch its newly developed FP INFOcus Guide, which provides step-by-step guidance for producing and promoting mobile phone videos that give young people the information they need to make informed contraceptive choices. Representatives from HACEY Health Initiative, a Nigerian non-profit organization, will share their experiences working with HC3 to pilot the FP INFOcus Guide and approach.

Webinar speakers include:

Daysha Veronica Edewi is a writer, director, producer and social media influencer who currently works for BuzzFeed as a Video Producer. At BuzzFeed, Daysha produces viral short-form video content, with a focus on sexual health, race and gender politics and body positivity. Her videos have been featured on the Huffington Post, Bustle and Refinery29, among other media outlets.

Muluba Habanyama is a journalism student at the Sheridan College Institute of Technology and an HIV activist. She was born HIV-positive and lost both of her parents to the virus. Since disclosing her status on YouTube in December 2014, she has been featured in various Canadian publications, as well as the MTV Staying Alive Foundation. She has a passion for education, engaging and empowering youth and has served as the national ambassador for the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research’s (CANFAR) Kisses for CANFAR project.

Cori Fordham is a Program Officer with the Health Communication Capacity Collaborative, led by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, and has over five years’ experience in global health and social and behaviour change. She supports the FP INFOcus project and co-authored the FP INFOcus Guide. Cori is passionate about using creative and innovative strategies to give key populations the tools they need to improve their health and well-being.

Winifred Imoyera is a Program Officer with HACEY Health Initiative, with five years’ experience promoting health in several parts of southern and western Nigeria. Using the FP INFOcus approach, Winifred has developed and shared a series of mobile phone videos aimed at increasing youth’s knowledge of long-acting reversible contraceptives.

David Adewoye is an IT and Communications Manager with HACEY Health Initiative. He has collaborated on several mobile and web-based projects, including HACEY’s FP INFOcus video series, and actively promotes the use of technology in addressing health challenges.

The NHS in England has announced it will finally give people a drug to dramatically reduce the risk of being infected with HIV, from next month.
The health service had previously fought against paying for Prep and even took the issue to court, unsuccessfully, last year.
The drug will be given to 10,000 people in a £10m trial lasting three years. The Terrence Higgins Trust said it was “crucial” the NHS delivered plans to offer the protection routinely.

Prep (pre-exposure prophylaxis) is a daily pill that disables HIV before it gets a stranglehold in the body. Trials suggest it can cut the risk of being infected by up to 86%. People buying the drug privately has been linked to the first fall in new infections in gay men.
Scotland has already announced it will make Prep available on the NHS to people at risk of HIV. And in Wales, the government is also trialling the drug.

‘Supercharge’

Sexual health clinics in London, Brighton, Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield are expected to be the first to offer Prep to high-risk people, starting September. The rest of the country will take part by April 2018. Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, said: “This major new intervention should complement and supercharge the wide-ranging and increasingly successful effort to prevent HIV.

“It’s another milestone in more than three decades’ worth of progress in tackling one of humanity’s major health challenges.” NHS England had fought not to offer the drug, arguing responsibility for paying for it should fall to local authorities, not the NHS. The trial will aim to answer questions about how Prep should be offered on a wide scale across England.

Harry Dodd, 25, is one of about 500 gay men in England who are taking Prep as part of a trial called Proud. He says: “I’ve seen the panic on the face of previous boyfriends when they are awaiting their [HIV test] results – it’s a huge fear, and it affects everything you do. “To be able to have sex without having that fear hanging over you all the time is huge.” Harry says taking Prep has still not become socially acceptable.

“Too many people seem to think it will encourage a hedonistic lifestyle, but for me this is about saving lives,” he says. “People reacted with cynicism when the contraceptive pill for women was first introduced.

“For me, taking Prep has helped me to trust again, have relationships and build bridges, and that shouldn’t be taken away.”

Ian Green, Chief Executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: “the priority must now be to make sure that the trial reaches everyone at risk of HIV, and that it is rolled out speedily across the whole country, by the end of this year at the very latest – spring 2018 is not soon enough.

“To make sure no-one at risk of HIV is left behind, it is crucial that at the end of this trial, a clear process for routinely commissioning Prep on the NHS is agreed.”

Deborah Gold, the Chief Executive at the National Aids Trust, said: “this is a pivotal moment in the fight against HIV. “Prep, if targeted properly at those in need and at high risk of HIV, offers the possibility of transforming the English HIV epidemic.

“We warmly welcome this announcement”.