CARAM Asia Successfully Raises The Concerns of Migrants At 9th ICAAP

Friday, August 21, 2009

CARAM Asia is pleased to announce its successful participation in the recent 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) which was held in Bali from the 9th -13th of August. It is a testimony to the campaigning of CARAM Asia and its members that migrant voices were included in the process as the congress for ICAAP had initially overlooked the link between HIV and migration.

CARAM Asia’s activities were vast and significant throughout the conference and these included hosting a Migrant Forum to hear from migrant workers discussing their own experiences and drawing up recommendations related to HIV/AIDS and mobility for the congress.

Furthermore, TFEM launched a new book Living With Hope documenting individual stories of migrants in some seven different countries. This launch was attended by a number of prominent guests including Anand Grover the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Health, Prasada Rao Director of UNAIDS Regional Support Team in Asia and the Pacific and Caitlin Wiesen the UNDP Regional Centre HIV/AIDS Practise Leader Program Coordinator for Asia and the Pacific.

Another of our key events was a skills building session entitled Empowering Migrant Communities Through Participatory Action Research (PAR) which saw the release of a new publication by the SOH program team.

As well as the aforementioned activities CARAM Asia and its members also participated in a number of other sessions related to mobility, gender and risk assessment in combating HIV transmission. This coupled with our own core activities helped further raise awareness on issues such as mandatory testing and HIV travel restrictions.

A full report documenting CARAM Asia’s activities at the 9th ICAAP will soon be released for public consumption on our website.