facebook - Disability Hate Crime Network

posted: 30/07/2010

People interested in stopping HIV hate and other forms of disability hate crime can join the facebook self-help group.

Fighting HIV and disability hate crime, bullying, abuse, and stigma is a big current issue with a major Inquiry collecting evidence of the problem. You can find out more about the Inquiry and how to tell your story here.

HIV Policy expert Chris Morley of George House Trust was interviewed at length about the hate crime experiences and impacts on people living with HIV, what works in combating HIV stigma as part of this Inquiry. But people's first hand accounts really need to be heard.

Join the facebook Disability Hate Crime Network here.

Condoms for Pope in Portugal

posted: 12/05/2010

While the Pope’s arrival in Portugal yesterday was greeted by thousands of faithful lining the streets of Lisbon, there was also a protest against the Vatican's refusal to approve the use of condoms to prevent HIV.
 

The condom protest began as a small Facebook group just seven weeks ago but became a nationwide campaign backed by thousands of mostly young people, in one of the most devoutly Roman Catholic countries in Europe.

"We never imagined that we would one day have 14,500 people supporting us," the campaigners said yesterday after their Facebook group, formed on 20 March, mushroomed into a full-scaled protest against the Vatican's attitude to HIV prevention.
 

18,000 condoms and HIV awareness
Hundreds of young people flocked to distribution points in the capital to hand out free condoms, to protest the Vatican's refusal to endorse the use of condoms as a method to fight HIV. The campaign began when three young lawyers, Rita Barroso Jorge, Diogo Caldas Figueira and Joana Vieira da Silva, created a small group on the social networking site Facebook on Mar. 20. But it mushroomed until it had the support of nearly 15,000 people.
 

"By handing out free condoms, we are raising awareness in the fight against AIDS," said one of the campaign's organizers, Barroso Jorge. Their campaign was "a success beyond our expectations, because we distributed 18,000 condoms in three hours instead of the 16,000 in five hours that we had hoped to hand out."
 

The initiative, which has the support of Portugal's main women's and gay rights associations, among other civil society groups, will continue Wednesday and Thursday in Fátima, and Friday in Porto, the pope's next stops.
 

Another of the organizers, Caldas Figueira, pointed out that in March 2009, the pope acknowledged in Africa that HIV was a global tragedy, but the pope claimed the distribution of condoms has made the epidemic worse.
 

"Our protest was born in response to the pope's amazing distancing from reality and the extremely serious consequences that his statements can cause in the fight against AIDS," said Figueira.
 

Liberalising nation
The pope's visit comes as Portugal, where 90% of people say they are Roman Catholics, increasingly turns its back on the Vatican's preaching. President Aníbal Cavaco Silva, who met the pope today, is expected to sign off shortly a law that will make Portugal the sixth European country to permit gay marriages.
Portugal's centre-left Socialist government has also introduced a law allowing a judge to grant a divorce even if one spouse is against it. The same government, led by Prime Minister José Socrates, passed a law in 2007 finally allowing abortion in Portugal. Benedict sharply criticised the abortion law yesterday, saying public officials must give "essential consideration" to issues that affect human life. "The point at issue is not an ethical confrontation between a secular and religious system, so much as a question about the meaning that we give to our freedom," he said.
 

George House Trust comment
 

Pope Benedict will visit England and Scotland for four days from 16-19 September 2010. The power of social media in raising HIV awareness and activism is clear. Will someone be inspired to use the pope’s visit to Great Britain to raise HIV awareness here?
 

Visit plans

The pope flies to Scotland and sees the Queen at Holyrood in Edinburgh. He will celebrate Mass in Glasgow. In England, he’ll say Mass in Coventry but spend most of the rest of the time in London, with a speech to British civil society at Westminster Hall, and in meetings and services with the leaders of other Christian traditions.
 

Source
Pope’s UK visit