AIDS RIGHTS: December 2009

Monday, December 28, 2009

【AIDS RIGHTS】 Dear,

Dear,

Happy New Year!

AIBO is the monogram from the pinyin of "艾"and"博" which mean"HIV/AIDS" and "MUSEUM". This represents the dream that oneday an HIV/AIDS museum will be established in China, a dream held by many people but started by a Chinese HIV/AIDS activist Chang Kun who has been doing HIV/AIDS works for six years and has promised to devote his life career on HIV/AIDS.

Because of legal and political factors in China, the AIBO Fund is kind of a public Piggy Bank that is transparent, with records posted on websites. Anyone who would like to support ChangKun and his activists will put donation into AIBO Fund.

Now, the main mission of AIBO Fund is keeping running the websites "AIDSWIKI.org" and "AIDSMUSEUM.cn". It's very hard to run the two websites because Chinese government always try to use different excuse to shut them down.

AIDSwiki.org is a Chinese HIV/AIDS website based on Wikipedia technology, it has been shut down three times, the last time was on Nov,2009, strategically just before Dec 1^st, 2009, which is World AIDS Day, the theme of which is "Universal Access and Human Rights". Even after we refused some interviews about it (for various reasons), Radio free Asia also made their own short message regarding this.[http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/AIDS-12012009100849.html?textonly=1]

AIDSMUSEUM.cn was forced to shut down on May 7,2008. The Congressional-Executive Commission on China in the USA has reported this issue:China Continues to Crack Down on HIV/AIDS Web Sites and Activists [http://www.cecc.gov/pages/virtualAcad/index.phpd?showsingle=106348]

Here is a chronicle of events in Chinese, if you are interested in it, please feel free to visit: http://chinaaidsgroup.blogspot.com/2009/11/china-aids4908-172009icp.html

From 2008 to Dec 22,2009, We have raised fund 1266.86 dollar (U.S. Dollar,1 U.S dollar=6.82 RMB, the same below) ,expensed 1528.89 dollar.

So that, we need to raise fund 262.03 dollar to cover deficit in 2009, and we also must raise fund for rebuilding AIDSWIKI websites and other activities.

Our target is to raise fund 1466.28 dollars totally for rebuilding AIDSWIKI

We appreciate that many friends and persons have been giving us strong supports! We strongly believe that the reason we can keep working continually and passionately because you always support and help us righteously and generously!

We promise that we always keep any information openly on websites, and we prefer that you can monitor our works and give us suggestions!

We also know, because of the economic crisis, most of us have to tighten our belts. However, we would like you to donate something small as you gift of Christmas and New Year!

Thank you very much! You can read more info at https://sites.google.com/site/chinaaidsmuseum

You can donate on Papal: changkunchina@gmail.com

Please feel free to connect us:
Chang Kun
www.changkun.org
E-mail:changkunchina@gmail.com
Cell phone: +1 619 365 5686（US）

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Cell: +1 (619) 365-5686

http://www.changkun.org

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Monday, December 7, 2009

【AIDS RIGHTS】 Fwd: [Tbhiv] Winners of the 2009 Kochon Prize announced

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Javid Syed <javid.syed@treatmentactiongroup.org>
Date: Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 9:51 PM
Subject: [Tbhiv] Winners of the 2009 Kochon Prize announced
To: internationaltreatmentpreparedness@yahoogroups.com, tbhiv@critpath.org

Ms Lucy Chesire and Professor Stewart Cole will share this year's Kochon prize, which is awarded annually to persons, institutions or organizations that have made a highly significant contribution to combating tuberculosis (TB), a disease that still causes more than nine million illnesses and 1.7 million deaths each year. The selections were announced at the opening ceremony of the World Conference of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, held in Cancun, Mexico, today.

Ms Chesire is a leading international advocate who has played a critical role in spurring awareness worldwide of the dangers of TB/HIV co-infection. A nutritionist by profession, she learned she was HIV-positive in 1992 and was the first female health professional in Kenya to publicly acknowledge her status. In 2000 she was diagnosed with TB, which resulted in several surgeries and a seven-month hospital stay. She has transformed the experience of surviving TB into a passionate commitment to help achieve TB prevention and treatment for all people living with HIV, no matter who they are or where they live. She served as the first patient representative on the Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board; and has worked closely with RESULTS as an adviser and spokesperson on a number of key advocacy initiatives in Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Professor Cole, Director of the Global Health Institute at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, is responsible for groundbreaking research on Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the microorganism that causes TB. In 1998 Dr Cole directed a team that determined the complete genetic sequence of M tuberculosis -- a piece of work that has been fundamental for the development of new drugs, diagnostics and vaccines. He also has done pioneering work on the evolution of M tuberculosis, the mechanisms through which it causes disease and how it becomes resistant to drugs. His team is currently leading an international project to discover new drugs to treat TB. He is the former Scientific Director of the Institute Pasteur and Chevalier dans l'Ordre de la Légion d'Honneur (Services to Science).

The winners will each receive the Kochon Medal and will divide the prize money, an award of US$ 65 000. There were also two award recipients last year: Dr Jaime Bayona of Socios en Salud in Peru and Professor Emeritus Denis Mitchison, formerly of the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in Hammersmith (now Imperial College), United Kingdom.

Link to the Note to the Media

--
Javid Syed
TB/HIV Project Director
Treatment Action Group
Ph: 212 253 7922
Fax: 212 253 7923
javid.syed@treatmentactiongroup.org
www.treatmentactiongroup.org

--
http://www.changkun.org

Thursday, December 3, 2009

【AIDS RIGHTS】 Fwd: NGO Delays China's first govt-backed gay bar

Delays to China's first govt-backed gay bar: NGO

(AFP) – 7 hours ago

BEIJING — Volunteers have delayed opening China's first government-backed gay bar following intense media attention, an NGO said Wednesday, highlighting the still taboo nature of homosexuality in the country.

"They were scared their identity would be revealed, that it would lead to misunderstanding and changes in their lives," said Zhang Jianbo, founder of the Dali HIV/AIDS prevention and health association, the NGO behind the initiative.

The bar in Dali, a tourist town in the southwestern province of Yunnan, aimed to provide a place where homosexuals could meet in a relaxed atmosphere and get information about HIV/AIDS prevention, he told AFP by phone.

China's health ministry warned on Tuesday that homosexual transmission of HIV/AIDS was gaining pace. Zhang, a doctor at a hospital in Dali, said raising awareness of the disease among the gay community was "extremely important."

The bar was due to open on December 1 -- World AIDS Day -- with the support of the local government, which had invested 120,000 yuan (17,600 dollars) in the NGO, he said.

"Our government leader asked me whether we could open it today, but I said the volunteers did not want to," Zhang said, pointing out that journalists and photographers had descended en masse on Dali following news of the bar's opening.

"If we open a place for an underground group, and if news is published about our target group and our volunteers in this way, it will influence their lives," he said.

"The volunteers (also gay) themselves called a democratic meeting and
decided to delay the opening, and when they think the issue has moved on, then they will open it and continue their work."

Homosexuality in China -- where it was officially considered a mental
illness until 2001 -- is still an extremely sensitive issue.

Gay men and women in China find it difficult to come out to their friends and family. One of the reasons lies in the nation's one-child policy, which makes parents rely on their only child to marry and have grandchildren.

The official China Daily newspaper said in 2005 that the number of
homosexuals in China came to around 30 million, although it conceded few were willing to acknowledge their sexuality.

Statements from government departments and academic reports have put the figure at approximately 15 million, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.
<http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/copyright?hl=en>

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