Once again, be blown away by how much stuff we did with 2.25 staff people.
Asia Catalyst Update
April 2010
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What we’ve been up to for the last three months…
[INCUBATION/TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE]
Phoenix
A core part of our work is individualized and tailored capacity-building training of
one grassroots group. Asia Catalyst is investing 1-3 years working with
Phoenix, a group of 90 current and former sex workers living with HIV/AIDS in
Yunnan, China. Through trainings and peer mentoring, our approach is to build
up strong, locally-governed NGOs, one group at a time. When we’re done, the
groups “pay it forward” by helping other NGOs.
In March, Meg Davis and Gisa Hartmann made our quarterly trip to Yunnan. We began with a
two-day training in Chinese AIDS law for 30 members of Phoenix, led by Korekata
AIDS Law Center, our former incubation partner in Beijing. Afterwards, Meg
moved up to Kunming and Beijing for an additional ten days of meetings, while
Gisa stayed in Gejiu to work with Phoenix. Their time together included
reviewing all the receipts and financial reports for the past two quarters,
training in Excel software, developing stronger volunteer and staff management
systems, and creating a plan and budget for the next quarter. With assistance
from local government, they also began to take steps to learn about and
implement the new national regulations governing wire transfers to Chinese
NGOs.
Gisa was able to be part of Phoenix’s work and daily life as well, joining the women in
a funeral to mourn a member’s husband who recently died of complications
relating to AIDS.
Gisa and Li Man, the director of Phoenix, also spent a couple of days in Kunming meeting
with international NGOs and making new professional connections. Li Man then
traveled to Bangkok to participate in a meeting convened by Seven Sisters on
the needs of Asian sex work groups and the Global Fund.
Check out our two latest travel vlogs (video blogs) from China: https://asiacatalyst.org/blog/
(and thanks to Witness for the two Flip cameras, one of which we left with
Phoenix.)
Other projects
In Kunming, Meg met
with a potential partner for short-term help on strategic planning, the Yunnan
AIDS Institute. YAI (also known as “Blue Sky”) works with Dr. David
Ho and the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Institute and has had great success in
preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. In Beijing, she met with
potential donors and journalists, and discussed project ideas with UNAIDS,
Boell Foundation, the Beijing LGBT Center, and CAP+, the China Association of
People Living with HIV/AIDS. She also had a lively discussion with students at
People’s University on human rights problems in the United States.
In Beijing, she sat in on an inspiring training by LGBT rights group Aibai for Chinese NGOs in how
to conduct effective and democratic meetings, and on how the management and
decision-making practices we use in our daily work can help to create an
egalitarian culture. Asia Catalyst has been proud to support the training
project this year.
International AIDS Conference
Participating in
international meetings is an important way for grassroots NGOs to make
contacts, build fundraising relationships, learn about issues, and learn to
present their own work to others. In February Asia Catalyst helped 10 Chinese
grassroots AIDS NGOs and academics to translate, polish and submit abstracts
and scholarship applications to the 2010 International AIDS Conference. We hope
to see a strong presence by Chinese NGOs at the meeting.
[RIGHTS CURRICULUM]
In January, we
started a new program: we’re partnering with Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group
(TTAG) and Korekata AIDS Law Center to create a manual that grassroots groups
of people with HIV/AIDS, drug users, sex workers and other marginalized
community can use to analyze, document and advocate for their legal rights.
The process we have
developed for writing the manual draws on focus groups, trial trainings and an
international advisory committee to create an intensely consultative process
with local groups that ensures their needs are met by the final product. It
will include a teacher’s supplement with lesson plans and resources that groups
can use to teach themselves, and will be published in Chinese, English and
Thai.
This will be a
two-year process. Working in three languages and three time zones has been
challenging but rewarding. We plan to launch the first part of the manual at
the International AIDS Conference in Vienna. Stay tuned!
[ONLINE]
Asia Report
In March, we were
proud to launch the “public beta” version of the Asian AIDS Law
Database at www.yazhoudiaocha.com/laws/. The database is a
free, user-friendly resource, searchable in Chinese and English, to help
researchers to find HIV/AIDS-related statutes throughout Asia. It is the first
database exclusively dedicated to this purpose. The database has over 100 records,
ranging from Cambodia’s draft law on drug control to the national policy on
HIV/AIDS of Bangladesh.The database launch made a nice splash in the
blogosphere, with favorable reviews on sites covering AIDS law, Chinese law,
drugs policy, and more.
Asia Report also featured articles and commentary on issues ranging from the
“red shirt” protests in Thailand, to the truth behind South Korea’s
much-touted “lifting” of the HIV travel ban, and India’s efforts to
promote rural access to energy.
Blog
Meanwhile, a few short clicks away at “Economic and Social Rights in Asia” (www.asiacatalyst.org/blog/),
we’re building an online community of analysis and resources by and for Asian
rights advocates in English. Some popular essays in the past quarter have
included our ten-step guide to creating a strategic plan, Glenn Tiffert’s
timely tips on how to stop hackers from taking over your computer, Ye Shiwei’s
article on ending violence against women and girls, and updates from regular
bloggers: Ricky Gunawan on the rights of drug users in Indonesia, and Ami
Evangelista on her growing organization’s work on health rights for women in
the Philippines. And more.
Got something to say? We welcome submissions of 500-700 words on economic &
social rights in Asia – contact us at info@asiacatalyst.org if you’re interested.
And
inevitably…social media
With guidance (aka
repeated nagging) from our team of interns, we’re building our social media
presence – check out our nifty new Asia Catalyst fan page on Facebook, or
follow Meg on Twitter at saralmdavis.
So just to sum up:
we’re now blogging, vlogging, Facebooking, twittering, and texting on multiple
cell phones.
Next step…An iPad?
Sure hope not.
[IN THE NEWS]
“The global thirst for
blood products is big business. American clinics will pay blood contributors as
often as twice-weekly for their “donations.” And in China, ‘a barrel
of unmodified blood’ is estimated to be worth $20,000 at wholesale, according
to a 2008 Asia Catalyst report.”
–
“What’s Your Body Worth?”, Steve Brearton, The Globe and Mail,
January 29, 2010
” ‘I
think it’s inevitable that they were going to start tightening the noose on
NGOs,’ said Meg Davis, executive director of New York-based Asia Catalyst,
which works with a number of grassroots groups in China on AIDS-related
projects. She spoke by phone from the southern province of Yunnan, where her
group works with 90 women with HIV. ‘Stopping work is not an option. These
women are working with a population that is sick and dying,’ Davis said. ‘The
only thing we can attempt to do is comply as best as we can.’ ”
–
“NGOs in China Say Threatened by New Donor Rules”, Cara Anna,
Associated Press, March 12, 2010
[ON THE HOME FRONT]
We were shocked and
saddened to learn of the death of Ngr Wahyunda, our friend at IKON Bali, in
March. You can read a remembrance of Wahyu by Anton Muhajir at https://asiacatalyst.org/blog/2010/03/remembering-an-innovative-rights-advocate.html.
In New York, we enjoyed
visits to our office by Yirenping director Lu Jun, who is spending the semester
at Yale University, and our friends Li Dan and Shen Tingting from Korekata AIDS
Law Center. Meg and Li Dan will speak at the NY Bar Association on April 19th.
Many thanks to the
interns who helped out this spring: Florence Au, Adam Froiran, and Annie Ye
Ren. While Florence and Annie are moving on to new jobs and educational
opportunities, Adam is staying on with us this summer. We’ll also have a new
army of graduate and law students this summer, working in New York and in Asia.
[DONATIONS]
Individual donations
from you are essential to our survival, and all gifts are tax-deductible. To make a secure gift
via Paypal, go to www.asiacatalyst.org/donate. You can also give
through our Facebook Cause page for Asia Catalyst.
Or, for those of us
who never entirely trusted those newfangled website dinguses, you can also mail
a check to: Asia Catalyst, P.O. Box 20839, New York, NY 10009.
We always welcome
comments and suggestions at info@asiacatalyst.org.
