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• AIDS Action Europe calls for host organisation for new project: “Capacity Development of HIV/AIDS NGOs in Eastern Europe and Central Asia”
• EU Leaders became super-heroes for a day
• Help us improve our e-news in only 10 minutes!
• Poll – How about you?

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AIDS Action Europe calls for host organisation for new project: "Capacity Development of HIV/AIDS NGOs in Eastern Europe and Central Asia"

Are you interested to become a pro-active partner of AIDS Action Europe in its newest project?
Do you want to take the lead in capacity development of NGOs in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, particularly in relation to advocacy and resource mobilisation?

If you are an experienced NGO or network located in Eastern Europe or Central Asia , this is your chance to work jointly with AIDS Action Europe and share your expertise and lessons learned with many NGOs in the region. By hosting the project, your organisation can turn into a national and even regional focal point in connecting local NGOs to Europe, in addition to strengthening their national capacities. The working relation with AIDS Action Europe will facilitate that your organisation develops stronger connections with the European Union and other key stakeholders in and outside the region.

Since its establishment in 2004 AIDS Action Europe has set Eastern Europe and Central Asia as a priority region for its activities. Recently we have secured funding to start a new project “Capacity Development of HIV/AIDS NGOs in Eastern Europe and Central Asia”.

The goal of the project is to strengthen advocacy, resource mobilisation and networking initiatives carried out by AIDS-related non-governmental and community-based organizations at the national and regional level by supporting capacity development in these areas. At the same time this project will increase AIDS Action Europe activities in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and will be a start for more active advocacy in and for this region.

AIDS Action Europe is looking for an organisation in the region that will host the project coordination. The host organisation should be able to start this project by end 2009 and organise the first regional training session preferably by June 2010 at the latest.

Click here to read the full terms of reference. Deadline to express your interest is September 18.

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EU Leaders became super-heroes for a day

A coalition of NGOs involved in the global fight to fill the deadly global health gap, such as Action for Global Health, AIDES, Coalition PLUS and Global Health Advocates, made a street stunt during EU summit on Thursday June 18 2009 in Brussels downtown.

Four EU leaders, dressed in super-hero costumes, implemented the micro-tax on currency transactions and turned a currency exchange office into a pharmacy. Nicolas Sarkozy was Superman, Angela Merkel was Wonderwoman, Silvio Berlusconi was Batman and Jose-Luis Zapatero was Spiderman. NGOs wanted to call for the implementation in Europe of the micro-tax on currency transactions, proposed on last May 28 by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

Indeed, according to a May 29 joint statement by the British and Norwegian Prime Ministers, alongside Cabinet Ministers from Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands, the international community must urgently invest at least $45 billion dollars more into global health in order to catch up on health-related United Nations Development Goals. The currency transaction tax can bring in between 40 and 60 billion dollars per year. Moreover, the tax is easy to implement! According to an international report by the current Deputy Governor of the Banque de France, taxing currency transactions would be easily implementable.

France and Belgium have already passed legislation to levy a portion of foreign currency transactions. Now is the time for EU leaders to demonstrate their will to take action on their commitments to global health, by first discussing and then approving their Ministers’ suggestion of a micro-tax on currency transactions. EU leaders must show vision!

Antonio Manganella, Aides

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Help us improve our e-news in only 10 minutes!

Just another newsletter in your mailbox? Or a valuable tool with useful information?
We developed a short questionnaire to evaluate aspects such as content, frequency and structure of the AIDS Action Europe quarterly e-news. The results of the questionnaire will be used to make improvements to the e-news - making sure that it will optimally serve the information needs of you and your fellow readers. Click here to participate in the questionnaire, it only takes 10 minutes of your time.

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Poll – Global Economic Crisis

How about you?

Does the global economic crisis affect your organisation?

Let us know by voting on our poll at www.aidsactioneurope.org!

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Report of the 9th EU Civil Society Forum on HIV and AIDS
The 9th Civil Society Forum took place on March 24-25 2009. The HIV/AIDS Civil Society Forum (CSF) has been established by the Commission as an informal working group to facilitate the participation of NGOs, including those representing people living with HIV/AIDS, in policy development and implementation and in information exchange activities. The CSF includes about 40 organizations from all over Europe. It acts as an informal advisory body to the European Think Tank on HIV/AIDS. EATG and AIDS Action Europe co-chair the Forum. This meeting of the CSF focused on the review of the first draft non-paper on the Communication on HIV/AIDS (2010-2014), code of good practice for NGOs, Dublin monitoring report, civil society involvement in UNAIDS and the Vienna International AIDS Conference, among others.

Migrant Health: Access to HIV prevention, treatment and care for migrant populations in EU-EEA countries
This report summarises the findings of a review of access to HIV prevention, treatment and care among migrants in the EU conducted between May and September 2008. The review was commissioned by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) to be part of a wider series of reports on migration and infectious diseases in the EU. Based on information gathered through a survey of respondents in the 27 EU Member States and three EEA countries and through a literature review, this report aims to provide an overview of the current situation and material for future policy, research and services aiming at improving access of migrant populations to HIV services. Approximately two thirds of the respondents represented non-government organisations (NGOs’), and the remaining third were representatives from governmental organisations. Findings and suggested actions, therefore, do not necessarily represent the views of EU national governments.

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The following section is devoted to the members of AIDS Action Europe. This is a space where members are able to present information about their organisation and work they are doing. We hope that this will facilitate our learning about each other and our work, also closer cooperation and understanding!

We invite our members to send us information (about half page) presenting your organisation which could be included into following issues of the E-news. Please forward your input to Martine van der Meulen at mvandermeulen@aidsactioneurope.org.

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The Challenge Fund is a non-governmental organization based in the northern city of Pavlodar in the Republic of Kazakhstan. We work towards the prevention of HIV/AIDS and drug usage of young people in the age of 14 to 29 years. Challenge has worked in this sector since 2003.


Our vision is to increase the awareness of HIV/AIDS and decrease its prevalence in the Central Asia region.

Our goals:

• To develop and distribute preventive literature;
• To decrease the morbidity rate due to HIV/AIDS in the Pavlodar area;
• To provide support groups like Drug Addicts Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous for Pavlodar community members in need;
• To organize and conduct community events to increase the level of public awareness about the threat of HIV infection through adverse behavior and drug usage;
• To organize and develop partner relationships with organizations working on the problem of HIV/AIDS and narcotic addiction locally, nationally and internationally;
• To participate in network projects with organizations working on the problem of HIV and drug addiction;
• To participate in lobbying and drug-reduction advocacy campaigns

Public Foundation Challenge focuses mainly on public awareness and health education events, such as:

• Interactive educational lessons at schools
• The psychological reconditioning of drug-users (“12 steps” program)
• The publication of a book about drug abuse problems
• “Hotlines” for free consultation from specialists
• Annual demonstrations around “AIDS Memorial Day” and “Dance 4 life”
• Candlelight Memorial Campaign

By constantly holding prevention activities and events for young people directed at changing their behavior towards caution in relation to HIV, it is possible to reduce the level of new cases of infection. A reduction of HIV infection was registered in the Almaty, Pavlodar, Karaganda and Kostanay regions (National AIDS Center) in 2007.

Public Fund “Challenge” consists of 3 full-time staff and 15 volunteers. If you would like to learn more about our organization, support our work , want to become a partner, or have any other specific questions which you would like us to answer, visit our website (www.challengefund.kz) and we will be glad to reply to you right away.

Elena Bondareva - Director, PF “Challenge”

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AIDS Action Europe Steering Committee

The AIDS Action Europe Steering Committee is having its biannual meeting on 17 and 18 September in Budapest, Hungary. Topics that are on the agenda are, amongs others:

• AIDS Action Europe Strategy 2010-1014
• AIDS Action Europe work plan 2009
• AIDS Action Europe's advocacy, communications and capacity development activities
• AIDS Action Europe's role at major events such as EECAAC and AIDS 2010

After the meeting in Budapest, 3 of our steering committee members will be at the end of their term. As there is already one position vacant, there will be an open call for 4 steering committee members in October. Keep track of our website to stay updated.

The list of current AIDS Action Europe Steering Committee members is as follows:

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