Abstract Book Vol. 2 [International Conference on AIDS (14th: 2002: Barcelona, Spain)]

XIV International AIDS Conference

Abstracts ThPeG8338-ThPeG8342 669

ThPeG8338 Is prevention possible?
J.T. Tranchina. AIDS/Hepatitis Prevention ACTION Network, 1404 Madison
Avenue, Redwood City, California, United States
When it comes to serving those who inject drugs, what can we prevent? What
must we tolerate? What do we inadvertently abet?
I propose to present a photographic and narrative exploration of incisive images
drawn from over a decade of direct experience delivering and supervising the
delivery of harm reduction services in Moscow; Amsterdam; Barcelona; Krakov;
Perpignan; Frankfurt; San Juan, Puerto Rico and Redwood City California.
As a student of the late John Collier ("Photography as a Research Tool in the
Social Sciences") and a colleague of the late Dan Waldorf, I've trained to make
images that frame observations. These images present problems and solutions.
Some show the heroic work of men and women who confront impossible conditions, while others document elegant solutions.
We have done lots of projects, we've gathered mountains of data. This is my attempt to show, in human terms, what we have learned about what works and
the work that must be done whether or not conditions for "success" exist. We set
out to prevent the spread of HIV, but soon learned that our clients died in other
ways. If we fail to address the other threats to survival, hopelessness erodes the
will to resist HIV. Since there is no effective HIV prevention strategy that fails to
address the safety and security of injectors lives, I set out to document the impact of programs, under conditions where progress is possible, and to clarify the
opposite.
How can the lessons we have learned in international harm reduction be applied
to the problems facing the next generation of injectors?
First, we must believe that we can make change. Second we must trust that mainstream people want more humane societies because the security of a more humane society makes their family safe. Then, we must act, under the conditions
we find ourselves, to achieve the best result possible and not be paralyzed by an
inability to accomplish what is possible in another time in a more accommodating
place.
Presenting author: Joey Tranchina, M.A., 1404 Madison Avenue, Redwood City,
California, United States, Tel.: [phone], Fax: [phone], E-mail:
jtranchina @ hepcglobal.org
ThPeG8339 Challenges faced in reaching out to Men who have
Sex with Men (MSM): Experiences of outreach
workers of an Indian community-based
organization
M.R. Kareem, S. Natarajan. Social Welfare Association for Men (SWAM),
Chennai, India
Issue: In India, many MSM do not have adequate knowledge about the risks
involved in unprotected sex and how to protect themselves from HIV infection.
Therefore, reaching out to these MSM and educating them about HIV/AIDS and
safer sex becomes crucial.
Description: As outreach workers of Social Welfare Association for Men (SWAM)
we are all self-identified gay men. We meet MSM in nearly 50 cruising areas of
the city and educate them about STD/HIV/AIDS. We have faced problems from
policemen - safer sex pamphlets will be considered as pornography and giving
condoms to MSM as "encouraging homosexuality". Policemen have threatened
us to put in jail so sometimes we have to pay bribes to escape from them. All this
happens because homosexual behavior is a criminal offence in India. Even if two
gay men are just talking in the cruising area they will be threatened by the policemen that they will inform their parents. Sometimes identity cards of gay men
will be snatched and will be asked to regularly pay some money otherwise they
will be 'outed'. Many MSM were frustrated whenever we distributed condoms or
talked about HIV/AIDS. They asked - "What are you going to do with the police?".
SWAM now gets the help of a lawyer in South India AIDS Action Program (SIAAP)
to solve some of these problems of MSM.
Lessons learned: Homosexual behavior being a criminal offence in India
presents a significant barrier to reach out to MSM. Providing HIV/AIDS education and distribution of condoms alone may not be sufficient unless we create an
enabling environment. Organizations providing HIV prevention services for MSM
should also take up advocacy work.
Recommendations: Homosexuality should be decriminalized in India. Policemen should be educated about sexuality issues and about the importance of
outreach interventions so that they do not interfere in the programs' activities.
Presenting author: Mohammed Rafik Kareem, 12/5, Natarajan Street, Balakrishna Nagar, Jafferkhanpet, West Saidapet, Chennai-600 083, India, Tel.: [phone], Fax: [phone], E-mail: [email protected]
ThPeG8340 Bulletin women working
S. Borja. Calle 4 - 920, Urbanizaci6n La Florida Lima 25, Peru

Issues: One the main challenges that threaten the quality life and the survival
the woman with HIV and AIDS in Peru it is the lack access to the information and
treatments in an in a social context marked by the poverty and extreme poverty,
marginally and ignorance its basic human rights that which is originating loss to
be able, abandonment, silence and risk life the women living with HIV/AIDS.
Description: BULLETIN WOMEN WORKING, it is an institutional project, based
on the production, publication and diffusion articles, letters, interviews, surveys,

testimonies, exchange experiences and reports from a perspective gender and
affected people for the empowerment, access to the information and active participation the woman. This includes the sensitization the takers political decision
and community in general.
Learned lessons: To increase the abilities and knowledge among the women
scarce legal, social and economic resources facilitates to have a protagonist list
and control in the taking of decisions that have to do with their health, their gender
and quality life.
We have demostrated the importance the access to the information on for the
empowerment and the best quality life the women living with HIV and AIDS in
situation poverty and marginatization.
Recommendations: The women in situation poverty and it carries to an extreme
poverty they need to know their rights and to learn how to be made respect in
front of a State that doesn't protect neither it guarantees their rights neither the
access to treatments.
The international organism to consider should condition its support to the States
countries in processes development based on the full respect the human rights
people that we live with HIV/AIDS.
Presenting author: Sonia Borja, Calle 4 - 920, Urbanizaci6n La Florida Lima 25,
Peru, Tel.: [phone], Fax: [phone], E-mail: soniaborja@latinmail.
com
ThPeG8341 We're going to keep coming back till we get what
we want: Diversifying AIDS activism through
avenues of participation for poor people and
people of color
J.H. Bell1, J. Davids2, J. Maskovsky3. 1ACT UP Philadelphia, 4953 Catharine
Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19143, United States; 2Critical Path AIDS Project,
Philadelphia, United States; 3Montclair State University Montclair, NJ, United
States
Issues: AIDS activism in the U.S. has changed over the last decade, as treatment advances, social / demographic shifts, corporate / policy changes, and the
bureaucratization and medicalization of AIDS services altered the political field.
Activist groups are often viewed superficially as controlled by middle-class white
activists. If poor people and people of color are involved, they are assumed to be
marginal participants with little impact.
Discussion: Our community research project, led by a diverse team of people
living with HIV and other activists, is creating a multimedia presentation that uses
community media, song, and stories to trace the mobilization of poor people
and people of color in the fight against AIDS. We compare AIDS activism in 3
groups in Philadelphia: the activist group ACT UP, the PWA coalition We the People and the treatment education / advocacy program Project TEACH, exploring
differences in organizing strategies, methods of political decision-making, participation and leadership development. Each group is primarily low-income people of
color, many of whom have participated in a variety of AIDS political activity. Using
ethnographic field methods of participant-observation and informal interviewing,
we evaluate dynamics and depict key struggles.
Learned Lessons: Race and class contradictions were present, as poor people
and people of color struggled with white middle-class participants to define the
agenda and gain leadership. Differences in organizing models, decision-making
and institutional formalization correlated with differences in the nature and scope
of political involvement across class and race. Participation and power-sharing
required major restructuring of decision-making, strategies and tactics, and cooperation between programs.
Recommendations: This study shows that groups can work across class and
race in concrete ways. Our presentation provides vivid examples and recommendations for future efforts.
Presenting author: John Bell, 4953 Catharine Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19143,
United States, Tel.: [phone], Fax: [phone], E-mail: [email protected]
ThPeG8342 Informal care of AIDS patients: the plight of women
in Zambia.
P.S. Chabinga. Shawa, Ro. box 30434, Lusaka, Zambia
Background: Health Care Services in Zambia are not coping with the increasing care demands from ever escalating AIDS cases. In the absence of integrated
community health care services, most of the people with AIDS have been left
with no much choice but to suffer and waste away in their homes. Most of the
non-governmental home based care initiatives that came up to supplement formal care, have collapsed due to lack of sustainability. The existing few are church
driven with limited services and a scanty coverage. In the households the burden
of informal care giving is mostly on the women because, caring is traditionally
considered a woman's role.
Method: The study was conducted based on an ethnographic theoretical frame
work. Two women informal caregivers to terminally ill AIDS patients were purposefully selected as research participants. Data was collected using audiotape
recorded interviews and participant observations. Simple content analysis was
used to describe, analyse and interpret data.
Results: Women more often than men take up the caring role in families, largely
because they have no choice. The care giving role adds on the strain on the
woman already loaded with multiple competing roles in the family. The gender