Africa Asia Interaction-
The Africa-Asia InterAction on HIV/AIDS was launched at the Global Village during the XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok Thailand in July 2004. The "A" in "InterAction" is capitalized because the InterAction focuses on ACTION, not talk.
Supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, the InterAction built two active learning networks-- one in Eastern Africa, and the other in the Greater Mekong Region of Asia. The East African network includes community organizations from Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya working in the field of HIV/AIDS related field. These organisations provide structural services in herbal and nutritional treatments, linking to anti-retroviral programs, taking care of orphans, offering voluntary testing and counseling, supporting income generation and savings schemes, providing group therapy, advocating for the rights of the infected and affected, and working with formal health service sectors.
Project Objectives
The Africa- Asia InterAction on AIDS aims to foster exchange and common learning by linking the Africa organisations with their Asian counterparts working in HIV/AIDS management and prevention. The goal of this work is to build bridges across the geographical divide to stimulate cross learning; the sharing of strategies, operational challenges and solutions; the documentation of lessons of many years of experience; and the creation of a collective identity that communicates concerns at the local level to global policy processes.
The InterAction is powered by the theme ‘Closer to Home’. The theme recognizes the importance of family, kin and community to prevention, care and treatment and mitigation efforts. It provides a lense through which to explore cultural and structural factors contributing to HIV vulnerability; to identify sources of support and care; and to move forward in reconceptualising how to tap and strengthen this core social institution in creating more equitable and robust systems.
Asia and Africa are the continents hardest hit by the AIDS pandemic. They are also the locations of some of the most creative and effective responses to HIV/AIDS. Over the twenty years since HIV was identified, community organizations in these two continents have demonstrated remarkable skill, flexibility, and stamina in dealing with the many challenges that HIV/AIDS presents. Much of this work takes place in community contexts, which are economically disadvantaged; where food, employment, water, and security are not assured, and where health systems are crumbling. This project seeks to document and share these sustainable methodologies not only with the two regions but with the whole world.
These experiences are being documented and are to be published in a book, which will be distributed to partners and public.
Partners in Africa Asia InterAction (provide URL where possible)
Among the Kenya members are Kibera Community Self Help Programme (KICOSHEP), Women Fighting AIDS in Kenya (WOFAK), Trust For Indigenous Cultures and Health (TICAH), Society of Orphans Against AIDS Network(SOAAN), Shangilia Mtoto Wa Afrika and Grassroots Alliance for Community Education (GRACE). In Tanzania we are collaborating with Faraja Trust and Tanga AIDS Working Group (TAWG) and in Uganda we are working with Traditional and Modern Health Practitioners Together Against AIDS and Other Diseases (THETA) and The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO). In South East Asia we are partnering with Raks Thai, Khemara, COHED, SHAPC, AIDSNet, Pattanarakand Yunan Institute of Family Women. These organisations are drawn from Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and China.
By linking these partners in learning exchanges, AHADI is opening avenues for important dialogue on HIV/AIDS in Africa and Asia.
Project Activities
The InterAction is running for the next two years with Satellite Meetings in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Asia. In these meetings, communities share their experiences in helping infected households cope with AIDS-related illnesses and conditions. Some of the topics for these gatherings include:
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