UNAIDS Conference (and a little slice of inspiration)

This afternoon, we were shuttled from work to the Press Room for lunch. The Press Room is a "old boys" style club for all of the people who work for the press and it hasn’t changed since it was first installed. The walls are deep wooden planks, shellacked with shine and held together with grease and sweat. The chairs are plastic picnic chairs with a thin layer of dust and the flies buzz in and out of dishes. Even the waiters are institutions. We scarfed down some mediocre fried food and were hurried to the UNDP compound for the UNAIDS conference.

I was feeling anxious all day, unsure of what to expect. I envisioned a modern board room with no character and men in expensive suits casually talking about the AIDS crisis in India over chai. Instead, the room resembled an elementary school classroom, with green carpet and florescent lighting. There were five tables set up in no particular formation and AIDS Competence Posters taped to the wall in a crooked fashion. The attendants were dressed semi-formally and resembled regular Joe Shmoes. Instead, I would later find out that they were nothing but ordinary, instead they were Country Directors and CEOs. The purpose of the conference was to present the model of The Constellation for AIDS Competence. It calls for a social vaccine in lieu of a biological solution. The battle of HIV is not decided in health sectors like other illnesses such as smallpox. It is decided in bedrooms and people's private lives. We cannot control AIDS; maybe to ourselves, but not to others. Instead, there is a need for facilitation for local ownership. In other words, there needs to be an openness in communities to communicate how they can measure their own behaviors, change and move on, while eliminating discrimination.

The second portion of the conference was a demonstration to a self assessment tool. The purpose of the self assessment was to evaluate where you are individually and as an organization and where you want to be. To demonstrate the importance of including the whole community in this exercise, the Country Director of UNAIDS said, “If we don’t include the whole community, then we are dreaming by ourselves and we can create a nightmare.” There needs to be a moment of introspection when you realize that you are on a rotating plane and regularly assess where you are, and how you can make improvements, not only for yourself, but for the whole.

I walk away from the conference with this sense of hopefulness and urgency to continue and complete my goals for this internship. Though it is likely that I won’t get everything done in the way that I had envisioned, there is no reason not to try my darnedest to be heard, and to get the messages that I believe out into the community. So, from this point on, I plan to implement my campaign. I will put on the dance performance, whether it is on a stage or in the classroom. It will happen because I will make it happen. “What is not discussed does not exist,” so I will discuss and I will act and I will change.

Peace.