The
Asia Catalyst booth. L-R: Li Dan, Shen Tingting, Will Lian. (Courtesy Zhao
Gang)

The
Asia Catalyst booth. L-R: Li Dan, Shen Tingting, Will Lian. (Courtesy Zhao
Gang)
Asia Catalyst
(New York), Korekata AIDS Law Center (Beijing), and Thai AIDS Treatment Action
Group (Bangkok) are cooperating on writing the manual Know It, Prove It,
Change It: A Rights Curriculum for Grassroots Groups. The Human Rights
Mission Kit, which you can download here, is a
collection of easy-to-follow steps, worksheets and templates groups can use at
home to start their own human rights research.
By Meg Davis
At 5 pm, the crowd began to assemble
on the square in front of the Messe Wien convention center. Some handed out
signs reading "Broken promises kill" or "we are watching" over photos of giant
eyeballs. Others wrestled in the wind with a black-and-white banner reading "No
retreat, fund AIDS."
On
July 5th, China convened the first meeting of the Red Ribbon Forum,
a gathering of government officials, NGOs and experts to discuss AIDS and human
rights concerns. Mark Heywood, the chair of the UNAIDS Theme Group on HIV/AIDS
and Human Rights, delivered a speech calling for more space for civil society. During
an intense - and in China, unprecedented - discussion period, civil society
representatives raised frank concerns about a range of human rights issues,
including ongoing restrictions on civil society, and demands for compensation
for the blood scandal that transmitted HIV to thousands of villagers. The full
text of Heywood's speech follows.
Marcus and his wife, Amina Evangelista Swanepoel, are in the
early stages of founding a new reproductive health NGO in the rural
Philippines, Roots of Health. This is one in an occasional series of blogs
about their experiences.
"Who can tell me the answer....
Marcus?" I hear the voice of my second grade teacher calling on me to answer a
question to which I have no answer. The feeling of humiliation that I'd feel
still haunts me today. In class I would always sink into my seat when my
teacher uttered those dreaded words. At that point of my life, school was
stressful for me, and I didn't like going. My negative experiences regarding
school however, pale in comparison to those of the children at Pulang Lupa [in
the Philippines].
By Meg Davis
Next month, Asia Catalyst is supporting a delegation of
Chinese AIDS activists to go to Vienna for the International AIDS Conference. Like
(no doubt) many of you, we've spent a fair amount of time sitting through
boring conference presentations around the world. But making a conference
presentation valuable and memorable is possible. Here are ten tips we came up
with:
By Loretta Wong
When it comes to grassroots AIDS advocacy
at the local level, I used to be a fierce lion and fearless tiger in the old
days. But I rarely got what I wanted from others, and government stakeholders tried their best to avoid me.
Now that I am getting old(er), I
realize that elements of advocacy such as inter-personal relationship, trust
and communication are important, too. These may be Chinese, but I do not think
these elements exist solely in Chinese culture. I am pragmatic - I really want
to see change and improvement as soon as possible. Here are five things I try to keep
in mind about grassroots AIDS advocacy.

On June 14-15, the United Nations convened informal
hearings in the General Assembly for NGOs on the Millennium Development Goals.
The hearings were to prepare states for the more high-profile summit on the
MDGs scheduled for September 20-22. Unfortunately, while the NGO presentations
were diverse and international, turnout by member states was relatively low.
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