Workers of Colour

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Workers of Colour Caucus

AIDS Live & Let Live Work 2007

Worker of Colour Caucus Plans for 2007

BBQ - June 16th, 2007 Link here to the flyer

Recognizing that 5,000 people continue to die of AIDS each day, and having heard from the 2006 International AIDS Conference that "It's Time to Deliver", the Workers of Colour Caucus is committed to bringing attention, education and financial commitment to this critical local and global issue.

Throughout 2007 we hope to engage in more community outreach, charitable work and transformative education around HIV/AIDS. We plan to make the Live and Let Live Fund a major centerpiece within our work for OPSEU.

How do we plan to do this? We are going to take the fundraising, awareness and educational pieces to the street, so to speak. Watch for us at the following three key events:

Convention Launch: April
BBQ - June 16th, 2007
Link here to the flyer
Caribana 2007: August 4 - 5, 2007

Quick Facts on the Face of HIV/AIDS

**Taken from the 2004 UNAIDS Report, the World Health Organization and other United Nations departments.

Over the 20 years since AIDS was first diagnosed, 20 million people have died.
Across the world, almost 38 million people are living with HIV.
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to just over 10% of the world’s population and almost 66% of all people living with HIV. 25 million people are living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.
Ten million young people (aged 15-24) and almost 3 million children under 15 are living with HIV. In sub-Saharan African, if current infection rates continue, up to 60% of 15- year-olds will not reach their 60th birthday.
In seven African countries where HIV prevalence is greater than 20%, the average life expectancy of a person born between 1995 and 2000 is now just 49 years – 13 years less than in the absence of AIDS.
Young people, 15 – 24 year olds, account for nearly half of all new HIV infections worldwide.

UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has used the words “a terrifying pattern” to describe the toll that the HIV/AIDS pandemic has taken on the women of the world and the women of Africa.
There are 4,650,000 young women and girls carrying the virus in Africa, increasing in numbers by over a million a year. If the patterns of gender inequality intensify, as they seem to be doing, then the youth of Africa are facing a slow, Darwinian extinction. In December 2003, women accounted for nearly 50% of all people living with HIV worldwide and for 57% in sub-Saharan Africa.
Women and girls bear the brunt of the impact of the epidemic; they are most likely to take care of the sick, to lose their jobs, income and schooling as a result of illness, and on top of that, they face the devastating negative stigma of discrimination.
An estimated twelve million children have been orphaned by AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. So far, the AIDS epidemic has left behind an estimated 14 million orphans. More than 80% of the AIDS orphans live in sub-Saharan Africa.
In Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, without antiretroviral programmes, average life expectancy is predicted to drop to below 35 years.

What can and should we be doing?

**taken from Stephen Lewis’ Keynote Address at the 2006 Toronto International AIDS Conference. For more details and background on these proposed solutions, read Lewis’ Race Against Time.

Support harm-reduction programmes, such as needle exchanges and methadone treatment.
Lobby against governments and institutions that advocate for abstinence-only programmes.
Support Preventative measures now – such as circumcision, microbiocides and Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT).
Recognize and support the need for nutritious food supplements as inherent to supporting and maintaining effective treatment.
Support laws and enforcement for the protection of women and children’s rights.
Implement and fund policies addressing the deluge of orphan children.
Support the need for major social welfare programmes recognizing the essential role that grandmother’s play as caregivers. Advocate for the guarantee of sustainable incomes for the grandmothers of Africa, from food to school fees, to income generation.
Continue to support treatment, and not just prevention of the disease.
Do not let the G8 off the hook – they must, at the very least, live up to their financial promise of $30 Billion by 2010, even though that is not enough!
Stop the brain drain and poaching of the health professionals of Africa – support the training and education at a country level, and support local country efforts to keep health professionals at home.
Advocate for more programmes and the engagement of youth.
Support the creation of an international agency for women, properly funded and staffed. There must be a voice on the ground for 52% of the world’s population.