Monday, June 9, 2008

AIDS Implementers Meeting

With 2.5 million new infections a year and only 1 million more people on therapy in the last twelve months, you can see easily see that key to reaching Universal Access targets (and maintaining them - an issue that has not even begun to be addressed as far as I can see) is scaling up prevention initiatives and strategies.

Hence the welcome response from the AIDS Implementers Meeting that has just finished in Uganda. It was also heartening to know that Ian Campbell (formerly of the Salvations Army, and someone who has shown time and again just how low cost community mobilisation and empowerment has more impact than costly top down models of care and prevention) was given a chance to address one of the plenary sessions on June 4.

Again, that is what we should mean by Civil Society - the local engagement and community mobilisation. De-professionalise AIDS care and prevention, and de-mystify it. But the challenge for Christians is how we get churches to even recognise that they have a vital role in this.

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