Overview of Kaiser Activities and Resources for the XVI International AIDS Conference

WEBCASTING

In collaboration with the International AIDS Society, the Toronto Local Host and co-organizers of the conference, Kaiser provides free, online access to the archived conference proceedings to NGOs, news organizations, policymakers, researchers and others on kaisernetwork.org. The daily coverage included:

• Live and tape-delayed webcasts and transcripts of each day’s sessions, including the opening and closing sessions, all plenary sessions, and selected other sessions and press conferences.
• English-, French- and Spanish-language audio podcasts of select sessions; slide presentations from select conference sessions.
  Daily narrated video highlights of conference developments.
• A free Daily Roundup email providing direct access to the latest coverage.
• News summaries from international media in the Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report.
• Interviews with newsmakers and journalists to summarize conference developments.

Access complete conference coverage at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/aids2006.

SPECIAL SESSION
Media and AIDS: Spreading Information Faster than the Disease
Monday, August 14, 2006 at 18:00 -20:00 – Metro Toronto Convention Center – Session Room 5 / Level 800
Richard Gere, actor and founder of Healing the Divide, opened a session on the critical role of media in raising awareness, changing attitudes, and fighting stigma. Moderated by Bill Roedy of MTV Networks International, this panel of broadcast executives and a leading AIDS advocate discussed the mobilization of the media industry following the 2004 launch of the Global Media AIDS Initiative by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at a special meeting organized by the Kaiser Family Foundation and UNAIDS.

Major new media coalitions and public awareness campaigns have emerged in Africa, the Caribbean, India and Russia. Media executives from these regions and countries discussed and shared key challenges and achievements in their expanded response to HIV/AIDS. Panelists also discussed models of partnership between local organizations, government institutions, and media companies that have led to well-coordinated and highly-leveraged campaigns.

NEWS CONFERENCE
Monday, August 14, 2006, at 17:00 – 17:45 – Media Center, Metro Toronto Convention Center
The Heroes Project and Star TV made an important announcement regarding their stigma reduction and HIV prevention campaign in India. Launched in 2004, the Heroes Project is the largest nongovernmental public service campaign in India, which is responsible for mainstreaming HIV/AIDS messaging throughout the country. Participants included: Richard Gere, Co-Chair, Heroes Project; Peter Mukerjea, CEO, STAR India; Askok Alexander, Director, Avahan, India AIDS Initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Matt James, Senior Vice President, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

News Release: Star India and the Heroes Project Announce Extension of Media Partnership at the 2006 International AIDS Conference

NEWS CONFERENCE
Wednesday, August 16, 2006 at 16:00 –16:45 – Room 3, Media Center, Metro Toronto Convention Center
Caribbean Broadcast Media, together with partners from the Ford Foundation, the Elton John AIDS Foundation and Kaiser, made a major announcement to support HIV prevention efforts in the Caribbean. Participants included Dr. Allyson Leacock, General Manager, Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation; Jacob Gayle, Deputy Vice President, Ford Foundation; Scott Campbell, Executive Director, Elton John AIDS Foundation; and, Matt James, Senior Vice President, Kaiser Family Foundation.

REPORTS AND RESOURCES

• The Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic: A Timeline of Key Milestones
  An online, interactive timeline of key global HIV/AIDS events over the course of the epidemic.
• Fact Sheets on HIV/AIDS
  Global, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, India and others.
• Globalhealthfacts.org
  An interactive website providing global health data by country.
• GlobalHealthReporting.org
  Updated daily provides daily news summaries, resources for journalists, country-focus pages, webcasts of health conference and interviews, and a calendar of upcoming global health events.
• International Assistance for HIV/AIDS in the Developing World
  A detailed look a funding for the global epidemic by G8 and other major donor governments. A recently published comment in the Lancet by Kaiser’s Vice President and Director of HIV Policy Jennifer Kates also looks at trends in global health funding.
• Survey of Americans on HIV/AIDS, conducted in spring 2006
  A national survey that includes findings on Americans’ views on global HIV/AIDS.
• AIDS at 25: An Overview of Major Trends in the U.S. Epidemic
  A chartpack provides an overview of major trends in the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States.
• KaiserEDU.org
  A health policy resource designed primarily for students and faculty features tutorials on the U.S. and global HIV epidemic and provides links to volunteering opportunities to fights the disease around the world.

JOURNALIST BRIEFINGS
Kaiser hosted more than 50 journalists from Africa, India, the Caribbean, Russia, Ukraine, and the United States of America for three days of special briefings on HIV/AIDS. The sessions were designed as a precursor to the AIDS Conference and to spur more in-depth reporting on the epidemic, and were held in collaboration with CBC/Radio-Canada’s Canadian Institute for Training in Public Broadcasting, and with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).