No country can fight HIV/AIDS alone, Lesotho Today

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The article reports on the opening of the 2nd annual meeting of the National AIDS Authorities in the SADC region.

This article can be used to:

1. Start discussions about gender and HIV.

2. Show how a greater range of sources makes a stronger article.

Trainer’s Notes: Although the article is a news piece on the speeches made by various officials at the opening of the meeting, it could have been used to comment on the gender dimension of the epidemic. It is not clear from the article whether the officials themselves have failed to deal with the issue of gender or whether the journalist did not report on it. Speakers are quoted as dealing with the vulnerability of groups, poverty and increasing numbers of orphans but none of these are linked to gender. Readers are left to make assumptions about who is vulnerable to HIV infection and what role poverty plays. The failure to seek comment from a person living with HIV is a serious omission.

Discussion Questions:
1. The article can be used to discuss how to present information that is obtained from meetings, conferences and international seminars and workshops in a way that is informative and but that also captures the human face of the epidemic.

Training Exercises:

1. Trainees should examine the article to see where gender issues can be included, then rewrite the article.

2. Have the trainees draft interview questiosn that they woudl like to ask.

Links to Training Resources: Gender and HIV/AIDS: A Training Manual for Southern African Media and Communicators, Gender Links and the AIDS Law Project, Chapter 4, www.genderlinks.org.za/docs/training/hiv-training-manual/hiv-ch4.pdf