UNIVERSITY COALITIONS for GLOBAL HEALTH

Hi All—World AIDS Day was an eventful and productive weekend for UCGH. Our excellent student leaders and member organizations worked together to create a unified demand to change the U.S. approach to the global and domestic HIV/AIDS pandemic at events across the nation!

Here is a brief recap of the events:

Washington D.C.
In Washington DC, UCGH partnered with community and national organizations to hold a rally in front of the White House. This included some of our closest allies at the Student Global AIDS Campaign, Center for Health and Gender Equity, American Medical Student Association, DC Fights Back, Africa Action, among others. On Nov. 30th, these groups came together to hold a march, rally and vigil in Washington DC. Representative Eleanor Holmes Horton spoke on the need for AIDS relief both domestically and internationally (Washington D.C. has the highest rate of HIV infection in the U.S. and President Bush is recommending that Congress flat fund the PEPFAR program at $30 billion USD). Later, students took their complaints directly to the White House and performed an act of civil disobedience. The students’ white shirts proclaimed bold statements: “At Risk: Youth; At Risk: African American; and At Risk: Woman” were just some of the messages tattooed across their chests. As police gave their first warning for protesters to move off the White House lawn, students chanted back “Warning one, warning two, warning three, warning eight-We won’t leave until you cut the red tape!” The message was clear: more must be done at home and aboard to change the faulty and discriminatory polices of HIV/AIDS programming. The event received TONS media coverage and was a huge success! This rally launched our multi-city effort that linked to other UCGH World AIDS Day events across the country. Check out this media coverage of the D.C. rally.

Chicago
On November 30th, the day before World AIDS Day, over 100 medical students (mostly from the American Medical Student Association) from all over the Midwest joined the Chicago Women’s AIDS Project and other community members in downtown Chicago to ask the presidential candidates to reform PEPFAR. A rally was held in front of Senator Obama’s office, followed by a march to the Illinois Republican Party offices. We had three great speakers: Cathy from the Chicago Women’s AIDS Project who spoke on the need to remove the 1/3 abstinence-until-marriage earmark which puts women and youth at even greater risk, Matt Sharpe from the Test Positive Aware Network who spoke about his own experiences living with HIV and the need to sufficiently fund PEPFAR, and Senator Obama’s staffer who read a statement committing to our three demands. The rally and march got a great response from onlookers as the group chanted “Our Future, Our Crisis, Fight Global AIDS!”

San Francisco
In San Francisco UCGH, AMSA students and members of the community participated in a march and rally on World AIDS Day. Over 100 students marched to the steps of City Hall chanting for “PEPFAR Reform Now!” At the City Hall Steps, students were met by AMSA’s National President and Global AIDS Fellow, representatives from Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s office, City Supervisor Tom Ammiano, and Dr. Sophy Wong from University of California, San Francisco. Together the students and speakers spoke about the need for PEPFAR Reform and the need for more physicians. The ralliers were met with supportive horn honking of cars passing by City Hall. An amazing success, many conference participants hailed this as the highlight of the weekend in San Francisco. This event got some excellent media coverage.

Dartmouth World AIDS Day Summit
Students and activists gathered from all over the Northeastern U.S. this past weekend for HIV/AIDS summit and activism training at Dartmouth College. The event was co-hosted by Americans for Informed Democracy (a UCGH member organization) and the UCGH student global health coalition at Dartmouth and included panel discussions with HIV/AIDS experts on topics ranging from how environmental factors impact the pandemic to the role that gender inequality has in contributing to the spread of the disease. Also, Dr. Nils Daulaire, M.D. M.P.H., C. Everett Koop, former U.S. surgeon general and Senator John Sununu gave the keynote addresses. This was an excellent opportunity for youth to see how politics impact AIDS. Following the educational morning sessions students were trained on advocacy techniques and how they can take action, especially during this U.S. primary season. Check out an article about this event.

At all of the weekend events students were collecting signatures for the UCGH “Reform PEPFAR” petition that we plan to deliver to congress and thus far, we’ve gathered over 200 signatures!

All of the students and national coordinators that participated in the UCGH events did an excellent job of making noise to create change! I hope everyone will join us in our efforts!

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 6:55 pm and is filed under Events, HIV/AIDS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.