news & events
July 7th, 2008 by admin
Upcoming events, Michaelmas 2009
October 12th, 7pm – Student Stop AIDS Speaker Tour 2009
Elton-Bowring Room, Gillespie Centre, Clare College*
Young people whose lives have been deeply affected by HIV are travelling from across the world to Cambridge to share their stories. This is an incredible chance to find out about the reality of the AIDS epidemic and our efforts to stop its spread.
This year’s speakers will include Daniel Kettor, who was motivated to become an activist following the death of his sister, Marietta, from AIDS, and now works to raise awareness of HIV in Sierra Leone; Chinyanta Chimba, an activist from Zambia whose work ranges from education and outreach amongst her local community to speaking at the UN, and Tony Ray, whose discovery that he was HIV-positive led him to become a peer education in New York City’s HIV prevention and harm-reduction programmes.
Come, listen, and be inspired by these stories of three young people’s roles in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
*(To reach the Gillespie Centre, go into Memorial Court from Queen’s Road, and turn right)
Past Events
March 24th – Day of Action in London
Over 100 students from Stop AIDS groups across the UK came to London for the Day of Action to campaign on our two current campaigns, Push for the Pool and the funding shortfall for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.
We met with Ivan Lewis MP, Under Secretary of State for International Development, who announced that he would personally set up meetings with the chief executives of the big pharmaceutical companies to discuss forming an ARV patent pool. We also called on the government to pledge their fair share of the Global Fund’s shortfall – £183.45 million for 2008-10; the Minister said he’d heard us, but that no annoucement would be made on this in the near future – so we need to keep the pressure up!
Many MPs also pledged their support for the two campaigns: more information and pictures at http://www.stopaidscampaign.org.uk/DayActionMarch09Page1.asp
Representatives from the Cambridge group and from Cambridge Medicines sans Frontieres also recently met with David Howarth, the Cambridge MP, to discuss these campaigns – the meeting was a great success, as Mr Howarth agreed to support both campaigns and gave us a good deal of constructive feedback on how to approach them.
March 2nd – screening of ‘Care and Love’ with the Chinese Salon current affairs discussion group in the Graduate Union (Mill Lane), 7pm
The Cambridge Stop AIDS Society and Chinese Salon discussion group are holding a joint film screening of “Care and Love” (2007), which tells the story of Liu Xianhong, a Chinese villager who contracted HIV through a blood transfusion during childbirth. Lack of regulation in Chinese blood transfusion practise has leaded to mass HIV infection, and some estimate that the number of people infected this way to be as high as 1,000,000. The film recounts how Liu Xianhong publicized her story, filed a lawsuit with her 8-year-old son against the hospital, and eventually received compensation. The bitter experiences of several families, and the collective effort by people living with HIV to defend their rights, resulted in the “Care and Love Group”.
The screening will take place on Monday, March 2nd in the Graduate Union (Mill Lane), at 7pm.
Entry is free, but donations to the Care and Love Group welcome.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?v=feed&id=587545057#/event.php?eid=53995832681
January 24th – letter writing session in Clare Cellars, 4-5pm (drop in any time!)
We’ll be writing letters to the Iranian government on the case of two HIV/AIDS specialists who have been given a severely unfair trial on the charge of ‘collaborating with the enemy’, almost certainly related to their travel abroad in connection with their work. It’s not only an important human rights issue, but could be crucial for the future of HIV/AIDS projects in Iran. More information here.
World AIDS Day, December 1st 2008
Stop AIDS Hub Night, Wednesday December 3rd 2008, 7pm at the Cafe Project (on Jesus Lane)
We’ll be watching “Dispatches: Living with AIDS“, in which Sorious Samura documents a month spent working as an orderly in a hospital in Zambia, where the majority of the patients are HIV positive, and exposes the untold story of AIDS – how poverty and the complex nature of African culture and sexuality are hampering efforts to eradicate this horrifying disease.
Come along to watch this powerful and thought-provoking documentary, then sign the Stop AIDS Campaign’s current postcard petition, “Push for the Pool”, calling for the creation of a patent pool to enable vital ARVs to be manufactured as generic drugs and sold to developing countries at affordable prices.
Speaker Tour 2008 – Unite to Fight AIDS: Friday October 17th 2008
Development Hustings: Tuesday 26th April 2005
Wake Up to Trade Justice all night vigil! Friday 15th April 2005
25,000 people, including a few intrepid cambridge-type figures, gathered in Westminster on the night of 15th April and stayed up all night to campaign for Trade Justice. This was 5 times as many people as they were expecting (which meant this intrepid cambridge-type figure spent all night sitting on the street instead of going to trade justice workshops and films) and was a huge success. For more information visit http://www.tjm.org.uk.
In April 2005 three intrepid CSAS members went to London to take part in the Make AIDS History demonstration. We wandered around London watching our comrades take their trousers off in the name of political activisim, and presented letters to each of the G7 embassies asking their governments to commit funding to the 3 by 5 initiative. We were joining hundreds of activists across the world who were calling for the same thing. See www.globaltreatmentaccess.org for more information.
In March 2005 representatives from CSAS travelled to Birmingham for a National Stop AIDS Society meeting, attended by representatives from other Stop AIDS Societies, as well as the Stop AIDS Campaign, Christian Aid, Cafod and SPW.
In February 2005 we organised a successful film evening, showing ‘beyond the frontline’, a truly moving film presented by Tanvir Bush following the AIDS crisis in a hospice in Zambia.
Also in February we hosted the Phoney Pharmacy – an icecream van dressed up to look a bit like a pharmacy to highlight the appalling lack of commitment by G8 leaders to providing access to treatment for millions in the developing world. We collected over 450 signatures on a petition calling on the government to provide more access to care and treatment, and got very cold in the process.
In December 2004 to mark World AIDS Day we organised a live band night in the Kambar, which raised over £500 for Dhiverse and SPW.
In November 2004 Cambridge hosted the annual Unite to Fight AIDS speaker tour, organised by SPW. Three young speakers, Mannie, Henry and Mandisa, spoke about their experiences of HIV and AIDS: All three have lost close friends or relatives to the disease, and Henry movingly described the moment when he was told he himself was HIV positive.
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