My lovely people, I promised to share my learning from AIDS 2024 in Munich with you. The two days I spent at the Global Village were quite fruitful as an activist. I decided to go where the noise is this time as it keeps me alive, being together with HIV activists and sharing the concerns of the global HIV community. It has been a fight for 40 years now and HIV activists have been always at the front.
Before making noise, let's start with the AIDS 2024 theme "Put People First". I asked myself many times who decides which people to put first? During AIDS 2022 in Montreal and now also at AIDS 2024 in Munich, I literally experienced a barrier between the accessible to all Global Village, thriving with activists and grassroots organisations, and the paid-for conference space full of big Pharma, scientist and policy-makers. In all, there is very limited interaction as most of us cannot enter the conference space and 'they' show little interest in meaningful engagement at the Global Village. How can "Put people first" as a slogan work if we already have two faces to AIDS 2024?
Now let's make some noise! Continue reading...
