January 2010
Happy New Year!
Here’s the latest from our new Brooklyn office. Please help spread the word – we’re looking for graduate and undergraduate interns for spring and summer 2010. Details all the way down.
[INCUBATION]
Phoenix
In September, we officially began our incubation partnership with Phoenix, a group of 90 current and former sex workers living with HIV/AIDS in Yunnan, China. We helped Phoenix to develop a strategic plan for the next year, a monthly timeline and a budget for the first quarter. Our system helps new groups learn to make choices each quarter based on their financial realities, so if they overspend in one quarter, they have that much less the next quarter.
So far, Phoenix is making good progress. They have a computer and two full-time staff people now. Their programs include visits to women in prison and at home, advocating for treatment access for women with HIV/AIDS, an emergency medical fund for those in need, and building relationships with health department officials and NGOs in China and Southeast Asia.
Executive director Meg Davis and administrative coordinator Gisa Hartmann traveled to China in November to work with Phoenix on the ground. We did some computer training, showed them how to do a budget report, and threw a party for members’ kids with songs, dances, games and prizes. We also met with the chair and director of the Women’s Federation of Gejiu and some peer NGOs in Kunming, the provincial capital. Finally, we did a half-day advocacy training for 15 members of the group.
Check out our travel vlog (video blog) from Yunnan: https://asiacatalyst.org/blog/2009/11/23/asia_catalyst_in_yunnan/ (and thanks to Witness for lending us the cool Flip cameras)
Korekata AIDS Law Center
The November trip was full of mixed emotions as we officially ended our 3-year incubation partnership with Korekata AIDS Law Center in Beijing. The center is now fully independent and doing exciting work on the litigation, training and advocacy front. We helped the center staff with one final strategic planning meeting, and threw a celebratory graduation party at a Beijing café. It’s been a wonderful experience working and learning together.
Fortunately, we won’t have to miss friends at Korekata too much, as they are running a legal aid workshop for Phoenix this spring, and working with us and TTAG (Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group) for the next six months on a joint project to develop a legal rights manual for grassroots AIDS NGOs in Asia (more on this next time!).
Haven Project
We wound up our fellowship program for Chinese AIDS activists by hosting Chang Kun, a co-founder of Beijing Yirenping among others. Chang Kun is visiting New York for one month. During that time, he has been living at Housing Works, a leading AIDS and housing rights advocacy NGO. Chang Kun will assist Housing Works with translation into Chinese and their plans for the International AIDS Conference. He will also spend one day a week at Asia Catalyst’s Brooklyn office.
You can read an essay by Chang Kun at: https://asiacatalyst.org/blog/2009/11/10/how_chinese_activists_access_information_resources/. He brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the office and it’s great to have him here!
For those interested in meeting him in person, we are hosting an evening of wine and conversation on January 14th. Email info@asiacatalyst.org or call us at (718) 514-2855 for details.
[ONLINE]
Asia Report
This fall, Asia Report, our Chinese-language website on rights in Asia (www.yazhoudiaocha.com) continued to grow with news on everything from caste violence in Nepal to the spread of HIV among men who have sex with men in Laos. We love hearing that colleagues in China are checking it out regularly and that our articles are often reposted to other sites. As the site never reports on issues in China, it is still accessible on the mainland.
This month, Asia Report worked with the Network of Sex Worker Projects to translate their very useful guide to the International AIDS Conference into Chinese. We hope that will help to get more Chinese activists to the meeting. We may also have funds this year to support Chinese AIDS activists speaking at IAC – more news soon.
Editor Ken Oh and graduate intern Sitong Chen have been working hard on preparations to launch an AIDS law database on the site in early 2010. The database will share the text of laws from around the Asian hemisphere. Stay tuned!
Blog
We’ve expanded the blog on the Asia Catalyst site, Human Rights in Asia, to include weekly essays by colleagues around the Asia-Pacific region on health and poverty in the Philippines, rights of drug users in Indonesia and Cambodia, and (most popular, in this economy) tips from donors on fundraising. We welcome submissions of 500-700 words on human rights in Asia – contact us at info@asiacatalyst.org if you’re interested. Check it out at www.asiacatalyst.org/blog.
[ADVOCACY]
On World AIDS Day (December 1), we launched our new report, Restrictions on AIDS NGOs in Asia. The report finds that despite public pledges by world leaders, grassroots independent AIDS NGOs in Burma, Cambodia, China and Vietnam still face restrictions, from difficulties with registration to censorship of websites. Read the full report at www.asiacatalyst.org, or Meg’s commentary on Cambodia’s proposed new NGO law in the Phnom Penh Post at https://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009120229886/National-news/ngos-vital-to-hivaids-effort.html.
We continued advocacy on cases of both individual AIDS activists and organizations. This ranged from working with the Yunnan AIDS Care Center to obtain urgently-needed second-line treatment for a former sex worker in Yunnan, to partnering with AIDS Policy Project to ask the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health to request medical parole for imprisoned AIDS activist Hu Jia.
On the road
On our November trip to Beijing, we met with UNAIDS, the Gates Foundation, and representatives from the U.S., German and Swedish embassies to advocate for the participation of independent grassroots NGOs in AIDS policy and law, and to press for donors and government to include AIDS law in their AIDS programming.
In October and November Asia Catalyst was also in Washington, D.C. to raise the same issues with State Department and Congress. Meg Davis was also invited to testify to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China on the rights of petitioners, rural people in China who petition the government for help with their cases and who often face the risk of retaliation. Meg also reconnected with legendary AIDS advocate Dr. Gao Yaojie, who testified to CECC about her work advocating for victims of the blood and plasma trade in China’s Central Plains.
[ON THE HOME FRONT]
We were saddened to hear of the passing of Bob Monkhouse, the pioneering founder of Balinese harm reduction group Yakeba. The organization was a beacon to many former drug users and nurtured the development of the local movement for AIDS and human rights. Our condolences to the extended family of “Uncle Bob”.
Coming and going
The board of directors bid a sad farewell to founding member Janice Brown, who left us to establish her own network of women in nonprofits and philanthropy, Powwow. The board is wooing some exciting new board members.
Many thanks to Hoh Koon Au Yeung, who has been working with Gisa to overhaul our financial system. Gisa will officially go from working part-time to full-time in January to handle our human rights manual as well as the admin work. (She’s actually been working full-time all along but now will get paid for it – progress!)
Thanks to all the interns who helped out this fall: Sitong Chen, Karl Metzner, Hye Gi Kim and Susanna Arcella.
Seeking interns this spring
We are eagerly seeking graduate and undergraduate interns for spring and summer 2010. AC interns work on research, program work, and have input into all our planning and strategy work. This year there is the opportunity to do part of the internship in China. For more information, see www.asiacatalyst.org/donate. We will accept applications until all positions are filled.
[DONATIONS]
Because of the cutting-edge nature of our work, we can’t rely on foundations alone to support what we do. Individual donations from you are essential to our survival. To make a secure, tax-deductible gift via Paypal, go to www.asiacatalyst.org/donate, or mail a check to: Asia Catalyst, P.O. Box 20839, New York, NY 10009.
Keep up with Asia Catalyst through our website: www.asiacatalyst.org.
We always welcome comments and suggestions at info@asiacatalyst.org.
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