Kerala AIDS e Forum

Friday, April 27, 2012

Invitation to Join - Promoting Health & Dignity Together

ഒത്തൊരുമിച്ചു പ്രോത്സാഹിപ്പിക്കാം - ആരോഗ്യവും അഭിമാനവും

The 29th International AIDS Candlelight Memorial will take place on 20 May 2012 at several locations worldwide. It would be great to have your organization's/community's involvement in this global event - one of the world's oldest and largest grassroots mobilization campaigns for HIV awareness. Plan a commemoration, and complete the registration form at http://bit.ly/IACM-2012. Please also forward this message to other organizations who may be interested. For your convenience, some of the basic information about this program is given below as Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

With 33 million people living with HIV today, the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial serves as an important intervention for global solidarity, breaking down barriers of stigma and discrimination, and giving hope to new generations. More than just a memorial, it serves as a community mobilization campaign to raise social consciousness. It is coordinated internationally by the Global Network of People living with HIV (GNP+).

Please extend your support and solidarity in "Promoting Health and Dignity Together".

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How can I register?

Registration is free of cost. Please visit http://bit.ly/IACM-2012 to submit the online form.

How can I organize?

You can plan and organize an event depending on the profile, reach, and resources of your organization. There is no set pattern for events, so you are free to be creative and come up with innovative ideas in accordance with the theme of the program - "Promoting Health and Dignity Together". Please download the coordinator's manual available at http://bit.ly/IACM-Manual for more information.

Why should I register?

You will become part of a global network and will be virtually joining hands in solidarity with thousands of people worldwide.
Your organization's name will be displayed on the website and thus bringing more visibility to your activities and potential collaborations.
You will receive important notifications from the official international coordinating agency GNP+.
You will have later opportunities for leadership within your locality or through the Candlelight program itself. For eg. National Coordinators are usually selected from previous community coordinators.

What if my organization cannot participate this year?

Even if your organization is not organizing an event this year, you can get involved and express solidarity in several ways:
Lookout for nearby organizations who are having an event this year in your area through the website, and join hands with them.
Spread the word. Pass on this email to potential organizations who may be interested.
Don't forget to "Like" our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/IACM.India and also to suggest it to your friends.

Is there any funding available from GNP+ for organising IACM?

Please refer the coordinators manual available at http://bit.ly/IACM-Manual for important tips on raising funds. However, there is no funding available from GNP+ directly to support community events.

Where Can I find more information?

Please visit www.candlelightmemorial.org or http://www.facebook.com/IACM.India

Or write to Coordinator.IACM.India@gmail.com

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Orukkam 1st Press Release [1 Attachment]

[Attachment(s) from Malabar Cultural Forum included]

Dear All,

                   Greetings from MCF team,


Highlighted in the attachment is the 1st press release in DECCAN Chronicle about Orukkam-12, 12th annual get together of MCF on 30th may 2012. We heartily welcome you to our program.

Malabar Cultural Forum

49/1628, OPP BANK OF BARODA,

VANDIPETTA, NADAKKAVU

KOZHIKODE-11

PH:04352369683

Naz Foundation International invites Expression of Interest from Malayalam translators

Dear Forum Members,

Naz Foundation International's Regional Office is planning to hire the services of translators and reviewers to undertake translation and review of technical resources, manuals and BCC materials related to male-to-male sexuality, MSM and HIV, and sexual health.

Documents are to be translated/reviewed into Malayalam and other languages like Hindi, Urdu, Bangla, Singhalese, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Gujarati, Punjabi and Tamil. Original documents are in English.

Detailed TOR and format of application can be downloaded from the home page of NFI's website www.nfi.net

Interested translators are requested to submit their Expression of Interest to: ajai@nfi.net on or before 3^rd May 2012

The format for submitting the EoI is available in the TOR. Those applications not submitted in the specified format will be rejected.

With Best regards

S Ajai Kumar

____________________________

Knowledge and Media Manager

Naz Foundation International

Regional Office

9 Gulzar Colony, New Berry Lane

Lucknow 226001, India

Tel: +91 522 2205781/2

Fax: +91 522 2205783

Email: ajai@nfi.net

Help support work with marginalised MSM and TG: http://www.nfi.net/donations.htm

P Be environmentally friendly - print this email only if you need to!

The information contained in this document is confidential information intended for your use only. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you receive this information in error, please notify us by emailing the original to the sender. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of NFI unless otherwise specifically stated. If the content of this email is to become contractually binding, it must be made on paper and signed by a duly authorised representative of NFI.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Red Ribbon Express 2012 Schedule in Kerala

As you know Red Ribbon Express (RRE) train campaign is being implemented by M/o Health & Family Welfare with the objective of increasing awareness and improving access to services for HIV/AIDS and communicable diseases including TB, Malaria and to increase access to Reproductive & Child Health primarily in rural areas of the country. Two phases of the campaign completed in 2007-08 and 2009-10. Given the huge success of these two phases, the third phase of Red Ribbon Express is launched from Delhi on 12^th January 2012 to commemorate National Youth Day. While optimizing on the theme of National Youth Day, this time the renewed focus of the RRE project will be on youth. Special effort will be made for mobilizing youth. Similarly, the communication material will be more interactive and youth friendly in dedicated space of a coach with provision of relevant services.

Here we are attaching a design of the RRE schedule in Kerala and request all of you to take part in the promotion of RRE Campaign by adding it in your face book page and give maximum coverage to the RRE Campaign in Kerala through sharing with your friends circle and may also mail to your friends for information.

Regards

Nijo, Kerala SACS

Red Ribbon Express Kerala Schedule 2012

--
"A Light can never light another lamp unless it continues to burn its own flame"

Nijo V.J
Consultant (Youth Affairs)
Kerala State AIDS Control Society
Dept. of Health & Family Welfare
(Government of Kerala)
Red Cross Road
Thiruvananthapuram - 695 035
Kerala State

Ph: +91 9496020816 (M)
+91 471 2304882, (O)
Fax: +91 471 2305183

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1 of 1 Photo(s)

RRE- Kerala.jpg

Attachment(s) from NIJO V.J

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Good Health at Low Cost (The Hindu | Book Review)

Note: Kerala and Tamilnadu are featured in this extension of a seminal research more than 25 years ago. The full text PDF of the book is available at http://bit.ly/GHLC-Book

Learning from others' policies

Arvind Sivaramakrishnan | March 12, 2012

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/books/article2988520.ece

GOOD HEALTH AT LOW COST, 25 YEARS ON: Edited by Dina Balabanova, Martin McKee, and Anne Mills; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Department of Global Health and Development, 15-17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H9SH.

This is a welcome sequel to the seminal 1985 Rockefeller Foundation study Good Health at Low Cost, which investigated the determinants of good health care in countries which, despite other poor indicators, did better than many wealthier ones. The five chosen were China, Costa Rica, Cuba, the state of Kerala — treated as a country for the purpose — and Sri Lanka. This second Rockefeller-funded study, by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine with four other partner institutions, examines Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Tamil Nadu, and Thailand, and revisits the earlier four, but Cuba does not figure in either volume.

The work follows the World Health Organization by focusing on health systems, seeing them as institutions working with other institutions to promote well-being rather than simply providing treatment. In that sense, the aims the United Nations set out in the 1978 Alma-Ata Declaration have been retained, and the authors also note the significance of education and literacy programmes in improving maternal health and child survival rates. Countries have been chosen on the basis of national health system reforms, population and global region, and models of governance, among other factors, and the researchers analyse their findings in detail.

There is a wealth of material here. Bangladesh, one of the world's poorest countries, has made great advances in life expectancy, child health, and literacy, mainly as a result of strong emphases on community and household level health and family planning services. In South Asia, the country has among the highest life expectancy, together with the lowest total fertility rates and some of the lowest perinatal and maternal mortality rates, all of which have been achieved in under 30 years from a dauntingly bad start.

Infant mortality

Other countries are impressive in their own ways. Landlocked Ethiopia, a victim of vicious Cold War rivalry, terrible famines, and brutal civil war in which starvation was a weapon, has greatly reduced infant mortality with a national programme to distribute insecticidal bednets and improved prevention and treatment strategies. Substantial improvements have been made in the primary health care workforce based on districts and neighbourhoods, and in arrangements for doctors to travel to rural areas despite the poor transport infrastructure; the high incidence of HIV/AIDS has also been tackled with antiretrovirals and public education programmes.

Even the systems of the former Soviet Union are assets. Kyrgyzstan introduced compulsory health insurance after gaining independence in 1991, and has drawn upon pre-existing administrative experience as well as remarkable dedication on the part of ex-Soviet medical staff to maintain standards of care.

Tamil Nadu, for its part, has successfully ignored what is now a central government view of health policy as a matter of illness episodes and nothing else. The IIT Madras research team shows the state to be ‘unique' for its strong body of public health managers at district level, and for having trained and deployed village health nurses since the late 1970s; Tamil Nadu has better indices than most other states for fertility, and for perinatal and maternal mortality.

While the first four examples rely on a sometimes uneasy combination of public and private provision, Thailand, with a mainly public health care system, has outperformed many other countries; free antenatal care, skilled birth attendance, family planning, and immunisation, were all universal by the 1990s, and all Millennium Development Goals were met in the next decade.

Of course all is not rosy. In Ethiopia, out-of-pocket expenses account for 80 per cent of citizens' health spending, and tuberculosis is still widespread; India faces similar issues, including the airborne spread of resistant TB bacilli from the habit of spitting. Tamil Nadu has poor levels of nutrition, and high levels of maternal anaemia. In Kyrgyzstan, the collapse of the Soviet Union ended systems of support for young mothers.

The collection rightly avoids making easy statements of causal links between policy and results, though many of the patterns identified and the evidenced conclusions reached make very good sense. Secondly, in health policy around the world, documented questions still stand about, for example, the influence of the GAVI Alliance and pharmaceuticals manufacturers on health policy around the world.

All the researchers here do, however, discover three factors central to good health policy and successful health care delivery. One is the strong involvement of women at all levels. Another is the honest evaluation of policies; this has, for example, made funding bodies see that the vertical interventions they favour cannot accommodate the complexities of health policy and health care delivery. The third is political will with, above all, a commitment to equitable access. This book will therefore be of great value to practitioners and policymakers.

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/books/article2988520.ece

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Sunday, March 11, 2012

Odisha Couple spreads HIV awareness; Kerala Police and Public supports (Express News Service)

On a grueling cycling mission

http://expressbuzz.com/edition/print.aspx?artid=360886
By Express News Service | 07 Feb 2012

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The battered blue bicycle looks as if thieves have had a go at it. It has no seat, no chain, no bell or brakes. Laxmikhanta Maity, its wiry, sun-burnt owner, places his feet on the pedals and his chest on the cushioned handlebar. He reaches out with his hands and propels himself and the bicycle forward by rolling the front wheel along.

Surely, not a comfortable way to ride, but Maity - who has come all the way from Rajnagar village, Kendrapara district, Odisha (formerly Orissa) - is on a mission to warn of a more threatening danger - the danger of AIDS. And in this ambitious campaign, which hopes to cover the whole of India, the social worker is accompanied by his wife, Monorama Maity, a diminutive woman riding another battered, but normal bicycle.

‘’It has been eight months now since we left home. We’ve covered 16 districts in Odisha and 18 each in AP and Tamil Nadu. Thiruvananthapuram is the first in Kerala, we hope to cover many more districts before crossing over to Karnataka,’’ Maity eagerly explains his plans. Both bicycles sport the national flag and Monorama’s are also laden with small bags carrying their meagre possessions. The couple spends the night at police stations and travels by day. Maity says he launched the campaign after two men in his village died of HIV/AIDS. Maity dabbles in Ayurveda back home, but no amount of treatment at various hospitals could save them.

The couple meets people, hands out pamphlets and info on how HIV/AIDS is spread. ‘’There’s practical difficulty for me talking about these things to women. My wife does that,’’ Maity explains why he brought his wife along on the difficult and potentially dangerous trip.

Maity does not have much of an opinion of the Kerala State AIDS Control Society which, he says, did not offer him much help. ‘’But the people of Kerala and the police too are very good. We met the Police Commissioner and the Chief Secretary. We also hope to meet the Chief Minister,’’ he said, before cycling away to the nearest school with his wife for another awareness programme.

http://expressbuzz.com/edition/print.aspx?artid=360886

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Honor Killing and Killing of the Honor in Kerala

Dear Forum,

In Kodiyathur near Mukkom in Calicut district in Kerala 27 year old man was tied to a post and beaten to death by a moral brigade of 15 men. It seems, the victim, despite warning from the culprits, was accused of continuing an affair with a married woman.

The issue to be noted here is not the magnitude or the extra judicial nature of the punishment or that the victim did not break the law of the land since the woman's husband did not complain (IPC 497-adultery) etc.

This incident is only a tip of the iceberg of the ongoing sexuality related Human Rights violations regularly occurring in Kerala with institutionalized impunity since the victims are most often Sex Workers or MSMs.

In the late eighties a street sex worker was murdered in the police lock up in Calicut but the perpetrators escaped punishment and recently a boy in Calicut killed himself due to severe police harassment for supporting his brother to elope and marry his girlfriend despite severe obstructions from the police department.

Young people sitting on the beach get arrested regularly here.

Recently a prominent politician was man handled by the public in the full glare of the media, got arrested and charged for having caught travelling in a car with a lady who is not his wife.

The MP's car was stopped by a large group of moral public for been seen with a strange lady.

One of the earliest splits in Congress party in India took place - as the culmination of events triggered from an incident of a prominent congress politician caught with a strange lady in his car when it met with a minor accident-the product the Kerala Congress party which is a decisive ally in the UDF Govt.

These are only the signs of the continuations of ever prevailing intolerance towards sex in Kerala society and the major brunt of all this is taken by the Sex Workers and MSMs.

Cultural leaders, politicians, leftist groups and feminists are all guilty of silence on this matter.

Demanding sexual freedom and sexual excesses are not same.

Revolution in the attitude to sexuality should be inseparable from the agenda of social revolution itself and the social reform movements which caused marked improvements in Kerala society have completely failed to address the politics of sexuality.

The extremely conservative leftist groups have added to this failure by holding the ridiculous view that sexuality itself is an import of imperialism!

Tragically most of the feminists in Kerala belong to leftist groups and fails to discern that feminism should be more oriented to Human Rights than culture.

Patriarchal normativity in sex is one of the root causes of sexual violence and despite elaborate discourse on patriarchy many feminists fails to take note of the reality that sexuality itself is a social construct that rest on the structures built around a gendered society.

In the current Kerala society sexuality is an important arena of struggle more than any other where all need to fight for their rights but the tragedy is that the feminists are on the other side of the table since they cannot think of rights like sexual freedoms beyond cultural and matrimonial confines.

This attitude to sexuality is the greatest tragedy as well as the challenges of feminism in Kerala and unless and until the feminists in Kerala start accepting sexual freedom including sex work as work all these sex related atrocities here will continue unabated.

Tito Thomas (Advocate),
Director,
CSRD,Calicut

[Source: AIDS-INDIA eFORUM]

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