Michael Angaga, NAP+
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The African Regional Network of people living with HIV/AIDS (NAP+),
would like to bring to your attention the withdrawal of NAP+
participation at the Community Forum and ICASA Conference, Abuja 2005.
The withdrawal has is a protest to the way the whole conference has
been organized. The organization excluded participation of PLHAs
[people living with HIV/AIDS] as a critical component of the African
community. To make matters worse, the conference organizers have announced that they do not have scholarships for the community participation at the conference, only a week to the conference.
We see this as a conspiracy against PLHAs in Africa and we urge the
PLHA community to boycott the Abuja conference, to express our anger
at the organizers.
The information we have is that the Conference raised funds to
support participation of Doctors / Scientists, Health Ministers and other government bureaucrats. It’s not clear who made such a radical
decision. If ICASA is a scientific conference, they claim it to be, let the organizers show the world any scientific achievement from past ICASA conferences.
In any international conference, PLHA lounge should be made a
priority as a necessity and not just an after thought. By planning to have a PLHA lounge in an open space, in Abuja, the ICASA organizers have exposed how inhuman they can be. This is an abuse of the PLHA community and should be strongly condemned.
Finally, we would like to propose to GNP+ to ensure that the Global
PLHA Community access resources to make GNP+ / Home Care conference
a reality. Since ICASA can not accommodate PLHAs in Africa, we shall
surely hang separately !!!
We rest our case.
Michael Angaga
NAP+ Regional Coordinator
Email : nap@africaonline.co.ke