An interview with TMAP Argentinean team

‘All women on childbearing age should receive information on how to prevent HIV transmission through specific gender-based campaigns’
‘All HIV positive women should have access to relevant information and education about their sexual rights, reproductive rights and family planning services in order to develop their capacity to increase control over their reproductive lives.’
‘All women and children should have access to comprehensive HIV/Aids services in regards to prevention, counseling and testing, and treatment.’

Today we are going to talk with Pablo Victor Garcia and Maria Lorena Di Giano about their campaign launch.

Q: Tell us about your campaign launch

A: The launch took place from August 26-28, 2009, in Salta city, Salta Province, Argentina, during the National Aids Conference, the main biannual Aids event in Argentina. Relevant actors working on HIV/Aids from local and national levels were invited to participate and share their work and points of view, as well as debate current policies in our country.

Q: How did you present your research findings?

A:         A) Participation in key sessions: After analyzing the agenda of the conference, the country team identified a key plenary session focused on universal access to treatment, organized by UN country representatives. At the end of the session, team members distributed campaign material to participants.

B) Poster presentation: The TMAP country team for Argentina participated in the conference with a poster and a presentation to share MTT#7 report findings and recommendations.

C) Visits to civil society booths: County team members visited the community based organizations booths and spoke with key civil society representatives about the campaign, inviting other organizations to support it and join future actions.

Q: Which organizations did you partner with?

A: Key messages of the campaign were developed in partnership with Argentinean Network of Women Living with HIV and Argentinean Network of Positive People. Members of these organizations provided onsite cooperation with material distribution and participated in the poster presentation and booth visits.

Q: How many people attended the launch?

A: Five hundred participants received campaign material. About 60 attended the poster and presentation and 20 of them exchanged Q&A with country team members.

Q: Who took part in the panel and who made presentations?

A: The panel was joined by Pablo García, national coordinator of the Argentinean Network of Positive People and member of TMAP team Argentina, and María Eugenia Gilligan, president of the Argentinean Network of Women Living with HIV.

Q: Did you get any feedback from media, policy makers and other NGOs?

A: The team only had access to two people from the media who visited the poster exhibition. They were local journalists from Salta who showed interest in the findings of the research. They were given the material, but we don’t have feedback from them in regards to the publication of any articles.

UN and government representatives were also present and showed interest in continuing dialogue. We plan to hold specific meetings with UNFPA, UNAids and UNICEF, as well as NAP.

Thanks to the launch, we have started dialogue with civil society organizations and are now in the process of building alliances.

Q: Were there any specific suggestions people had for solving the problems around vertical transmission?

A: The launch was particularly helpful to raise awareness of the target audience about the need to improve the quality and access to comprehensive HIV/Aids services for women and children.  It was extremely important to have had the possibility to approach key actors and decision makers in the context of the conference with specific printed material and have public conversations and discussions around research findings and recommendations. It was, however, very difficult for the team to reach the media.

Q: Were there any specific suggestions people have for solving the problems around vertical transmission?

A: Our campaign had the ability to raise awareness of the specific needs women and children have in the context of universal access to treatment. The country team had interesting discussions with participants at the conference.

There was an agreement on the need to improve the quality of care provided to HIV-positive women while stigma and discrimination in health facilities was identified as one of the main issues to address.

The need to increase access to contraceptives and other prevention material, as well as provide women with information and education about human rights, was also highlighted. There is also a necessity to pay more attention to HIV-positive children’s needs.

One of the central issues during the conference was the difficulty people living with HIV face in accessing second- and third-line ARVs. There is availability of these drugs, but the high cost imposes great challenges to maintain regular provision of them.