We’re writing to tell you about the exciting work Asia Catalyst is doing with grassroots health groups in Asia, and to ask you to continue your support.

• Trained the NGO Leadership Cohort, a group of ten health rights groups who get intensive training in nonprofit management and advocacy over the course of one year. This year’s cohort participants included a courageous former teacher living with HIV/AIDS who runs the only group for people with HIV in her hometown, an organization of sex workers doing ground-breaking outreach and organizing in their community, as well as other community leaders from around the country. Three of our cohort participants will become assistant trainers for the 2013 cohort, and will “pay it forward” by training other groups. As the program scales up, it creates a new generation of professional nonprofit leaders.
• Published three new reports on health and human rights China. Our joint report with Korekata AIDS Law Center on China’s HIV blood disaster was the first major human rights report researched and co-written by a domestic Chinese organization. It was endorsed by UNAIDS and the Shenzhen Center for Disease Control, and our recommendations were taken up by a government advisory working group.
• Trained dozens of East and Southeast Asian activists in human rights documentation and advocacy. We trained forty activists from Africa, Asia and the US at a workshop in Washington DC, and gave intensive training to a new coalition of 12 leading Chinese and Thai gender and sexuality activists at a workshop in Thailand.

• Showcased Chinese activists at the International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC. We provided scholarships, training and round-the clock translation as well as hosting workshops, roundtables, and events to ensure that Chinese civil society had a voice at this important meeting.