Celebrating our fifth anniversary
This year, Asia Catalyst celebrates five years of helping to build grassroots groups in East and Southeast Asia. As part of our 5th Anniversary Campaign, our board has promised to match donations to help Chinese rights advocates come to the International AIDS Conference in Washington D.C. in July. That means $100 donation is worth $200, and $500 is worth $1000. Please make a tax-deductible gift here.
A gift of $100 or more gets you a lovely gift book — with photos and background on our inspiring partners in China and Southeast Asia.
Launch: On the evening of March 21, Asia Catalyst celebrated the official launch of its 5th Anniversary “New Generation of Leaders” Campaign with a cocktail and dim sum reception, hosted by board member Minky Worden. We honored Professor Jerome Cohen, a founding board member. The evening also featured Mike Frick, China program officer and Shen Tingting, one of the founders of the Korekata AIDS Law Center. Tingting shared her experiences in HIV/AIDS activism–both the exciting growth of this new field in China and the ongoing challenges.
“Asia Conversations” happy hour: In March, we also held our first “Asia Conversations” happy hour at Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, where we welcomed Chinese public interest lawyer Li Kefeng and enjoyed the gallery’s “New Chinese Currency: Ink Landscape and the Body” show of contemporary art. The event was the first organized by the Catalyzers, a group of early/mid-career New York professionals with an interest in rule of law and social justice issues in China and Southeast Asia. Get in touch if you’re interested in joining them.
TRAINING FOR grassroots groups
Coaching: In late February and early March, the China Program team conducted three coaching workshops in Beijing, Tianjin, and Nanjing, working with groups doing outreach to male sex workers, disability rights NGOs and an organization working with local LGBT communities. All three workshops focused on strategic planning for nonprofit management. One disability rights activist wrote afterwards, “This training provided a lot of inspiration, and will enable us to think more scientifically and holistically about planning.”
NGO Leadership Cohort Update: The China Program team also conducted site visits to several of the organizations participating in Asia Catalyst’s year-long NGO Leadership Cohort. They visited cohort partners in Beijing, Tianjin, and
Nanjing, to learn about their working environments and observe outreach and other activities. Our next cohort training is scheduled for May.
ADVOCACY ON HEALTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Real-Name HIV Testing: In early February 2012, the Chinese Ministry of Health announced that it intends to require patients to provide real names in order to receive HIV testing. Chinese NGOs have expressed serious concerns about the lack of confidentiality in Chinese medical agencies and the high risk of discrimination against people who test positive. We are supporting the China Alliance for People Living with HIV/AIDS (CAP+) and the China Gay Health Forum in calling on the Ministry of Health to reject real-name testing and strengthen privacy protections at hospitals and testing sites.
See our letter to the Minister of Health, Dr. Chen Zhu here.
Stay tuned for a bilingual briefing paper on this topic, coming out this spring.
Compensation to Victims of China’s Blood Disaster: In March, Asia Catalyst and Korekata AIDS Law Center published a joint report about China’s HIV/AIDS epidemic in the central provinces. Titled China’s Blood Disaster: The Way Forward, the report details challenges faced by blood disaster victims in their efforts to use the legal system to get compensation. It also makes detailed recommendations for a national compensation plan.
South China Morning Post and the British Medical Journal (BMJ) reported on the report, and our commentary on it appeared on China Geeks. Check it out here.
We were excited to see that our 2007 report, AIDS Blood Scandals: What China Can Learn from the World’s Mistakes
was cited throughout the government working group’s proposal for a compensation plan. We will continue to monitor progress on this proposal.
Know It, Prove It, Change It! A Rights Curriculum for Grassroots Groups: This three-volume series is created specifically to help grassroots organizations in communities affected by HIV/AIDS to understand their basic rights, document rights abuses, and design and implement advocacy campaigns. In this quarter, we held focus groups in China and Thailand to assess needs as we start on the third volume, Change It: Ending Rights Abuses. Download the two previous volumes here.
Report on Chinese Health Rights NGOs: In February, we published a short report on organizational development of thirty health rights groups in China. The report offers a snapshot of these groups’ internal management in such areas as strategic planning, budgeting, volunteer management, and advocacy. Download it here.
NEW WEBSITE
In January, we launched our new and improved website! The new site showcases our work, including our coaching programs, research reports, human rights curricula, as well as an updated blog roll. Take a look at www.asiacatalyst.org.
IN THE OFFICE…
Asia Catalyst welcomes Beijing colleague Shen Tingting to New York! Tingting, who will be working out of Asia Catalyst’s New York office this spring and summer, will be conducting research and advocacy on HIV/AIDS issues, including treatment access and real-name testing in China.
We are excited to welcome Chad Bolick to our board of directors. Chad is Director of Impact and Innovation at the Tides Foundation, where he focuses on research, fundraising, and developing strategic partnerships and services to meet shifting needs within the non-profit and philanthropic sectors. Chad also previously lived and worked in Vietnam.
Lizzy Berryman, who joined us in January as a volunteer, will be taking over as our part-time Communications
Coordinator at the end of March. Lizzy is originally from Philadelphia, and has nearly a decade’s experience building curricula in many areas, including English language, international education, media, and technology. Lizzy holds a BA from Columbia University, and an MSc from the London School of Economics.
She takes over from C.K. Wang, a longtime friend and associate. After four years of consulting and volunteering with Asia Catalyst, she is taking a break to focus on her Ph.D. studies.
You can find out more about our leadership here.
