Feedback from the largest ever UK conference of people living with HIV last month indicates it was nothing less than a resounding success and struck exactly the right note with everyone who attended.
“Landmark”, “Fantastic” and “The most powerful gathering of people living with HIV” were just a few comments that filtered back to the UKC from delegates. It generated tremendous enthusiasm and energy. At UKC we hope this inspiration and renewed vigour will not be lost once people return home.
One of the most inspiring features was the way the conference brought together those newly diagnosed with long-term survivors. Each group motivated the other and drew strength from an invaluable exchange of advice, ideas, information and experiences.
As the name Changing Tomorrow: Am I Doing Something? suggests, the conference was all about people with HIV and Aids sticking their necks above the parapet and challenging something, someone, somehow. Easy to say in a group of 400 people with HIV, but much harder to pull off when you are sitting in your front room.
Conference planning was led by three positive people’s organisations: the UKC, Positively Women, and the National Long Term Survivors Group, in partnership with the UK’s HIV policy body the National AIDS Trust.
But the event was more than just about showing that HIV organisations can work well together. It proved categorically that people with HIV want and need solidarity on issues that affect all of us, regardless of lifestyle or ethnicity.
It’s an old cliché, but the strength of our unity demonstrated at the Leicester conference is absolute proof that we, the “victims”, are still capable of making a (constructive) noise and doing things for ourselves.
PN news this month reports on some of important conference moments, followed by a focus on what individual delegates felt about this special and empowering event. Noteworthy highlights included the creation of networks for women, people living in Scotland and Wales and the birth of a broadly representative group of African people in the UK.
A full conference report will appear on the UKC website later this month. It will provide a useful tool for all of us, but especially for positive people’s organisations to make sure we build on the momentum, maintain sustainable networks and actually deliver on what people at the conference told us they wanted. The reverberations from this conference will be felt for a long while yet. And we won’t leave it five years until the next one.
Bernard Forbes, UKC chairman
This month PN turns the spotlight on the largely invisible world of teenagers living with HIV. Three young people from vastly different backgrounds tell their stories and talk about their dreams and desires beyond HIV diagnosis.
Dawn, infected by Feston Konzani, describes how she has put a traumatic court case behind her, while Sara speaks of surviving rejection by her parents. Raoul, meanwhile, is busy amplifying the voice of young people with HIV across the globe.
Worldwide, young people bear the brunt of HIV infections, with around 50 per cent of all new cases of HIV occuring in people aged 15-24. Young people with HIV are the future - so it’s time we listened to what they have to say.
Amanda Elliot, managing editor
