For four days from July 12 to July 15, 2004, an unprecedented gathering of AIDS activists, community-based organizations, service providers, performers, donors, friends, and others took place in the Global Village during the XV International HIV/AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Thailand. We called ourselves the Africa-Asia InterAction on AIDS, and we have developed a strong learning and exchange network in the years since our first gathering.

Africa Asia InterAction

Starting the InterAction

Beginning with a core group of Rockefeller Foundation grantees, partners, and colleagues from the Greater Mekong Sub-region and from East Africa, this InterAction, hosted on the Africa side by AHADI and the Asia side by Raks Thai Foundation, began to invite one another to workshops, on field visits, to seminars. Over time, we became advisor's to one another's programs. All of us feel that our learning at individual and at organizational levels has been invaluable.

Our Core Members

The core members of our InterAction are the following:

  • Cambodia
    KHEMERA
    Cambodian Women for Peace and Development
  • China
    Kunming Medical College
    Yunnan Institute of the Family
    Yunnan Institute of Development
  • Laos
    Institute for Cultural Research
    Xieng Khuoang Provincial AIDS Control Committee
  • Thailand
    AIDSNet
    Empower Foundation
    Pattanarak Foundation
    Raks Thai Foundation
  • Vietnam
    Community Health Research Unit (CHRU)
    Hanoi Medical University
    Center for Community Health and Development (COHED)
    STDs/HIV/AIDS Prevention Center (SHAPC)
  • Kenya
    Kenya Africa Health and Development International (AHADI)
    Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health (TICAH)
    Women Fighting AIDS IN Kenya (WOFAK)
    Kibera Community Self-Help Program (KICOSHEP)
    Society for Orphans Against AIDS Network (SOAN)
    Grassroots Alliance for Community Education (GRACE)
    Shangilia Mtoto Wa Afrika.
  • Uganda
    Traditional And Modern Health Practitioners Together Against AIDS and Other Diseases (THETA)
    The AIDS Support Organization (TASO)
  • Tanzania
    Faraja Trust Fund
    Tanga AIDS Working Group

Exchange Activities

Over the years of our exchange and learning, there have been meetings and exchanges within the East Africa region, some of them hosted by TICAH. There have been similar meetings within the Greater Mekong Sub-region, and there have been chances for us to visit one another's work and participate in the development of programs. We met at international AIDS conferences and co-hosted events. Initially, we identified the four main vulnerabilities which challenged the work we are doing in our communities: poverty, gender inequality, stigma, and insecurity. We began our exchanges by talking and demonstrating the ways we were working to overcome those vulnerabilities in our communities.

We identified unmet needs in our communities for improved herbal medicines and gardening techniques, and TICAH hosted an exchange on this topic in 2007. We met in Nairobi to talk about using the arts and media to combat stigma. This meeting was hosted by AHADI. A group of East African InterAction members visited the Greater Mekong Sub-region to learn about how to work with sex workers and how to improve income generation efforts and food security.

Documentation

In January 2008, the Raks Thai Foundation invited TICAH's Director to facilitate their summative meeting in Chiangmai, Thailand. At this meeting, the Africa-Asia group drafted a definition of Positive Living which we believe is an excellent frame for our work, whether we are primarily engaged in prevention, mitigation, or treatment. Our definition of Positive Living can be downloaded from TICAH's website.

We hope to keep the InterAction alive and are seeking partners and supporters to enable us to do so. We intend to build a set of projects from our Positive Living framework.

Closer To Home
This book documents the first Africa-Asia Interaction held at the XV International HIV/AIDS Conference held in Bangkok, Thailand in 2004. To read the abstract and find out more about how to order the link, please follow this link.