The
2nd Biennial Community to Community (C2C2) conference took
place October 20-22, 2006 on Salt Spring Island, focusing
on gender inequality as the major cultural, social and political
barrier to HIV/AIDS awareness and action.
The conference
was incredibly successful, both in terms of networks extended
and commitments made, Community to Community.
Click below
to explore some photos and video from the conference, and
stay tuned for our upcoming Community Connector, where you
are invited to continue the conversation that was begun at
C2C2.
The vision for our conference on Salt Spring is
to bring everyone in at the same level, so that the policy makers
and professionals, and the activists and grassroots "fire from
below", can pass information horizontally across the room,
instead of over/or under each others' radars. To that end we are
absolutely thrilled to have the participation of 5 very special
African delegates*:
Meisie
Maaroganye is a community leader and organizer with
the Evaton West Community Development Forum in South Africa.
She coordinates workshops focused on developing media and
communications skills for non-profit organizations doing AIDS
outreach. She is also is developing a telecommunications centre
at Evaton West, with a focus on bring Information Technology
access and skills to people in the townships who face transport
and financial barriers.
Lerato
Legoabe, also from South Africa, is the project coordinator
for Girls'Net. Her work is a model for empowering girls around
their rights, including their rights over their own bodies
and sexuality. Girl’sNet brings together small groups
of girls, aged 10 to 18, to learn computer literacy, audio
production and photography skills. Their training specifically
focuses on sexual and reproductive rights, with all forms
of child abuse and sexual abuse given special attention.
Mamello
Lehlotha, from Lesotho, is founder and director of
the Phelisanong Handicapped Project, a resource centre for
disabled adults. It includes adult and youth HIV/AIDS support
groups, a farm, a pre-school for disabled children, vocational
training for disabled youth, a handicraft cooperative, and
social support for non-resident orphans and vulnerable children.
On-site housing shelters 55 disabled children and adults.
Agnes
Pareyio, from Kenya, who was named United Nations
in Kenya Person of the Year in 2005 for her contribution towards
achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Pareyio is the
co-ordinator of Tasaru Ntomonok Initiative (TNI), a community-based
organisation that helps girls who have chosen not to undergo
circumcision and early marriage to continue with their education.
She has toured the country extensively educating girls on
sexual health and choices, mobilizing communities to address
the dire consequences of female circumcision, early arranged
marriage and lack of human rights and self-determination for
girls. She is an avid proponent of a revolution in gender
equality and women’s rights in Africa.
Shortly
after retiring from Swaziland's diplomatic service, Sipho
Mamba was staggered to discover over 400 AIDS orphans
in his community, with only their grandmothers to care for
them. Sipho turned his own homestead into a school for 90
of these children. His wife Colleen feeds them twice a day.
His center also helps local people re-establish traditional
crops and learn permaculture techniques so that a grandmother's
small plot can feed several children. Sipho’s school
has become a model of community mobilization as he continues
to find ways to help still more children, not just to survive,
but to turn the tide of the epidemic and see a new future
for their country.
We know art and ceremony move people in ways that
the evening news doesn’t…. in this spirit SOLID has
invited musicians, photographers, filmmakers, installation artists
and artisans to participate in Community to Community 2. Below are
some of the exhibits and interactive workshops that took place at
C2C2, along with the Film&Video Lounge.
One of the main contributors to the AIDS crisis is that of gender inequality
globally, but most particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where the AIDS pandemic
has taken hold. The gender roles that are played internationally continue
to reinforce the disproportionate vulnerability of women and girls to
the risks they face in life, such as HIV/AIDS. The focus of this conference
is the empowerment of women and girls to make their own choices that affect
their health and very survival.
The denial of human rights to women and girls has pervasive and relentless
impacts upon every aspect of their lives and shapes the societies in which
we live. The granting of all human rights to the entire human race would
transform the face of the AIDS crisis by allowing every person the right
to the information and ability to provide for prevention, treatment and
care for each. Social justice is at the very root of the ability to deal
with the AIDS crisis since any mechanisms put in place can only be effective
if the education and means for self-determination over reproductive health
is not denied.
The gender aspects of health are ubiquitous across the globe and Canada
is no exception with tragic prevalence rates amonst vulnerable populations,
including the transsection of women, First Nations and immigrant populations
that face cultural and language barriers. The linking of communities across
the globe that face the same challenges is a central aspect of the Community
to Community conference in order to reduce the isolation, encourage peer
education and link vulnerable communities and populations to the services
that they require to facilitate prevention of HIV transmission, but also
treatment and care of the alarmingly high percentages of people within
these communities who are infected currently. The intention is to involve
and engage as many of the Canadian HIV/AIDS impacted communities in the
organization and attendance to the conference as possible including: Gays
and Lesbians, First Nations, Youth and Women's Groups, with special consideration
given to access for special needs of all ages.
