International Federation of Red Cross and Red Cresent Societies - 20 July 2004
Rosemarie North in Bangkok

The International Federation's HIV/AIDS officer and representative of the Red Cross Caribbean AIDS Network, said the conference had given her a new appreciation of the value of AIDS programmes in her region, which has the world's second highest rate of HIV.

"Coming here now I know that what we're doing in the Caribbean is on a par or better than what other regions are doing. I feel there are presentations we should be making here."

An example of what the Caribbean should be showcasing at international conferences is "Together We Can," a peer education programme that gives 10 to 19-year-olds the information and skills they need to make safer choices, said Fergusson-Stewart.

"Together We Can" runs in most of the Caribbean's 25 countries, and has been featured as a UNAIDS model of good practice.

Fergusson-Stewart was one of only four Red Cross Red Crescent delegates from the Caribbean at the six-day conference, which broke previous records with more than 19,000 participants.

So why wasn't the Caribbean, a region of 20 million people, better represented at the Bangkok conference?

Fergusson-Stewart said many programmes had not been running very long, people lacked abstract-writing skills and they lacked the strategic partners who could sponsor their trips.

She aims to change all that before the next AIDS Conference, in Toronto in 2006, which she plans to attend as one of a delegation of 20 Red Cross Red Crescent people from the Caribbean.

While the conference ended on a high note for Fergusson-Stewart, it began with a whimper for many delegates, when the opening ceremony's only HIV positive speaker, Paisan Suwannawong, founder of the Thai Drug Users' Network, spoke to a near-empty arena.

Politicians, VIPs and many audience members had already left, and conference organisers were later criticized for pushing HIV-infected people into the background.

Yet the voices of positive people could be heard during the conference, said Clement Mufuzi, co-ordinator of the Network of Zambian People Living with HIV/AIDS.

His organisation falls under the umbrella of the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GNP+), which works in partnership with the International Federation to eliminate stigma and discrimination against people living with the virus and their families.

During the conference, two member networks, the Network of African People Living with HIV/AIDS (NAP+) and the Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (APN+), marked ten years of existence.

For more than a decade, Mufuzi has lobbied to get positive voices heard, using the slogan "nothing about us without us."

"These are the communities who carry the burden of HIV on their shoulders. They must be centrally involved," he said.

Drawing a parallel between the Zambian government and the international community, Mufuzi, who has been HIV-positive since 1991, says it can take a long time for people to open their ears to people living with HIV/AIDS.

"In Zambia most of the HIV/AIDS programmes were designed by health workers but we began to realize that our own priorities were not addressed. We said we'd like to be part of our solution, part of the struggle, part of the answer. But we were being judged not on our capacity but on our status. We kept saying we're not asking for anything special. We're asking to be accepted. We'd like to make a difference."

"Over the years they've come to respect our contribution. They've come to realize that we have an opportunity to contribute," Mufuzi says.

He believes it is only by working in partnership that the AIDS epidemic can be halted: "We would not like you to find yourself in the situation we're in. We have family. We have children. Today it's us. Tomorrow it could be you. We don't want it to be you. We wanted to channel our anger into action."

The solidarity between HIV-positive and HIV-negative people was the theme of the International Federation's booth at the conference.

In it, visitors had their photos taken in front of a poster that said "You Can't Get AIDS By Being A Friend." The photos were printed as stickers, which were put on a blank poster. At the end of the conference, the faces of nearly 4,000 visitors from every continent smiled in support of the Federation's anti-stigma message.

As well as their presence during the conference, several people living with HIV/AIDS were prominent in the closing ceremony. In a change from the published programme, Paisan Suwannawong, chairman of the Thai Drug Users' Network, had a second chance to speak, this time in front of a full house.

For many the highlight of the closing ceremony was a speech by a frail but charismatic Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa, who celebrated his 86th birthday two days later.

"My prison number on Robben Island (near Cape Town in South Africa) was 46664. Despite the efforts of the apartheid regime to reduce us to prison numbers and so reduce our humanity, the world did not forget us," Mandela said.

"As former prisoner number 46664, there is a special place in my heart for all those that are denied access to their basic human rights."

Mandela also made a plea for funds and collaboration to limit the spread of HIV/AIDS.

"History will surely judge us harshly if we do not respond with all the energy and resources that we can bring to bear in the fight against AIDS," he said as he urged the world's rich countries to honour funding pledges to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis.

"We need to build the public-private partnership that is the vision of the Global Fund. We challenge everyone to help fund the fund now," he said.

"Allow me to enjoy my retirement by showing you can rise to the challenge."

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