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News
Regional Women's Conference in the
Planning for 2010
Women in Michigan and Ohio are invited to plan and
participate in an upcoming conference, Women Living 2010, for
women living with HIV ( including transgender women), their family,
friends and partners. The committee set a tentative date of
Saturday July 31, 2010, and Ypsilanti, Mi was chosen as a central location
Women Living 2010 would be a day dedicated to women healing, thriving
and celebrating life with HIV. The conference will focus on prevention for positives initiatives,
with some special focus on youth. There will be a resource fair, key note
and breakout sessions to provide education, empowerment, reduce stigma
and social support.
The conference planners want participants to feel safe and comfortable, so participation
will be limited to HIV+ women and staff who work with them (along with
guests of the HIV+ women: partners, family).
A fundriasing committee will take the lead on this initiative and all
participating organizations are expected to assist. Other planning
committees include:
Workshops,
Venue/logistics,
Resource fair,
Advertisement and programs,
RSVP’s.
Our next conference planning meeting will be on
January 7th at 12noon at Oakland Livingston Human Service Agency in
Pontiac: 196 Cesar E Chavez Ave.48343
This is a brown bag lunch session. Please RSVP to
Barbara Marcotte if you plan to
attend this meeting
White House
Says Women are a Priority in the U.S. National HIV/AIDS Strategy
Women and HIV leaders meet with Administration; focus on human rights,
integrating sexual and reproductive health as key component of
gender-sensitive National HIV/AIDS Strategy
U.S. Positive Women's Network
Release
Washington D.C., Friday, Dec 11, 2009 -- This past Tuesday the White
House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) held an historic meeting
focused on women and HIV. Their goal was to bring together experts in
the field to advise in "making women a priority population in the
National HIV/AIDS Strategy." Speakers included the U.S. Surgeon
General; leadership from the Domestic Policy Council and Council on
Women and Girls; leadership from the Office of National AIDS Policy; HIV
researchers; and advocates for women and HIV, including members of the
U.S. Positive Women's Network.
"The National HIV/AIDS Strategy must include special attention to the
needs of women and girls… we must focus both on ending the epidemic and
on improving the lives of people living with HIV," said Valerie Jarrett,
a key advisor to President Obama and Director of the White House Office
of Public Engagement. Ms. Jarrett also referenced her personal
commitment to HIV in witnessing HIV stigma and shame, and her experience
of the loss of a family member to HIV.
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin,
who lost her only brother to HIV, emphasized, "HIV testing is part of
women's basic health." Women living with HIV agree, and stress the need
for new HIV prevention mechanisms, such as microbicides. "I was moved by
the Obama staff's personal connections to HIV/AIDS," says Waheedah
Shabazz-El, trainer for the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project
(CHAMP), and a founding member of the Positive Women's Network. "What
is clear from their remarks is that we need a comprehensive strategy to
prevent HIV among women in the
U.S.
The NHAS must prioritize scaling up funding and research of female
controlled prevention options for women in this country."
Also part of women's basic health are sexual and reproductive health
services that meet their needs as presented on by Dawn Averitt Bridge,
founder of The Well Project, and a founding member of the U.S. Positive
Women's Network, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1988: "Studies show that
an overwhelming majority of HIV-positive women of reproductive age
desire and plan to have children. Pregnancy planning and sexual health
care must be integrated with HIV testing, prevention and care - since
most women seek out sexual and reproductive health services, it's also
an opportunity for HIV testing, education and prevention."
Other speakers addressed the broader needs of women living with and
affected by HIV whose basic human rights to health, safety,
non-discrimination, and adequate housing are routinely violated. Dr. Ada
Adimora from the University
of North Carolina -
Chapel Hill presented compelling evidence indicating that
many women diagnosed with HIV did not have a history of risky behavior;
that interventions to reduce the epidemic among women must consequently
address socio-economic and structural factors that make some women
particularly vulnerable to HIV infection. Her recommendations to
address this included healthcare reform, ensuring safe and adequate
housing for everyone, reforming the criminal justice system, and
changing laws that discriminate against people of color.
Many of the agenda items covered in the White House meeting were
initially presented to the Office of National AIDS Policy in July 2009
in
Critical Issues for Women and HIV: Health Policy and the Development of
a National AIDS Strategy (available at
www.womenhiv.org/node/599) co-authored by fourteen organizations
working to expand the human rights of women living with HIV in the
United States.
As a membership body made up of HIV-positive women and their allies, the
U.S. Positive Women's Network applauds the meaningful inclusion of
women, including transgender women, living with HIV at all levels of the
development and monitoring of our National HIV/AIDS Strategy. We
recognize the groundbreaking leadership of the Obama administration's
commitment to creating the first-ever comprehensive HIV/AIDS strategy
for the U.S. PWN is proud to take part in this momentous process moving
us closer to the fulfillment of our human rights by making women a
priority population in the
U.S. National HIV/AIDS Strategy (www.whitehouse.gov/onap).
We stand ready to partner with the Administration at every step of the
way.
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