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Funding Announcement: AIDS United 2012 Innovative Strategy Award for Access and Retention in HIV/AIDS Care – Deadline May 1, 2012

Check out this announcement from AU on opportunities for innovative access to care programs! Grantees receive $25,000 and 1 representative to attend AIDS 2012: “As a funder and policy leader, we know that innovation is needed to promote new solutions for persistent problems and barriers to care. This award will provide an opportunity for organizations around the world to demonstrate innovative strategies and share them with their global peers.” Read the full announcement and get the application here.

Raising Our Voices: An Advocacy Summit for HIV+ Women in the South

March 6 – 8, 2012 Fort Walton, FL — 2012 is a year to Count HIV+ Women Leaders In! This National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day on March 10th, PWN honors the vibrant and powerful leadership of women living with HIV in addressing the domestic epidemic. Women living with HIV and advocates in the Southern U.S. gathered in Fort Walton Beach, Florida for Raising Our Voices: An Advocacy Summit for HIV+ Women in the South. The Summit trained 50 HIV+ women from the southern states most impacted by the U.S. epidemic on human rights issues, community organizing, and healthcare reform implementation to build advocacy capacity in the South.

Check out our comprehensive archive of presentations, workshops, and blogs including:

  • Count Us In! Data is Necessary for Justice
  • Southern HIV/AIDS Strategy Initiative in the South and Health Care Reform
  • Holistic Leadership Development
  • … and more!

Detroit Dental Employee Banned From Touching Doorknobs Because He’s HIV Positive

December 22, 2011, Detroit, MI – After disclosing his HIV-positive status to his manager at Great Expressions Dental, James White was banned from touching doorknobs [and]  subjected to sudden and abrupt schedule changes. After complying with the schedule changes, he was written up for “unexcused absences” [after falling] ill [...] White reports that Great Expressions Dental called to terminate his employment the day before he was scheduled to return back to work following his prolonged illness.

Read PWN’s Press Release and call for action | Read POZ’s article

Contraception is Prevention!

From Raising Women’s Voices: That’s the message we need to send immediately to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. HHS is seeking comments until September 30 on its proposed religious employer exemption from the contraceptive coverage mandate in the Women’s Preventive Services rule issued in August. Take Action and read more here »

Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus Launch

Washington, D.C. – Representatives Barbara Lee (D-CA), Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Trent Franks (R-AZ), co-chairs of the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus, will hold a press conference to announce the launch of the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus. The Caucus currently has 50 members!

WHO:         Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA), Co-Chair of the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus
Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ), Co-Chair of the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus
Congressman Jim McDermott (D-CA), Co-Chair of the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus
Michel Sidibé, Executive Director, UNAIDS
Jeff Crowley, Director, White House Office of National AIDS Policy
Ambassador Eric Goosby, Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator
Michael  J. Gerson, Columnist, Washington Post
Ronald Johnson, Vice President of Policy and Advocacy, AIDS United
Kent Hill, SVP, International Programs Group, World Vision

WHAT:        Press Conference
WHEN:        Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 10:30AM
WHERE:       The Capitol (specific location TBD)

For more information please contact Jirair Ratevosian (Lee), Andrew Adair (McDermott) or Stephanie Hammond (Franks).

MAKE WOMEN COUNT at the International AIDS Conference 2012!

Women account for 50% of the global epidemic and should be at least 50% represented at AIDS 2012. Women-focused organizations and partners wrote a letter to the Conference Coordinating Committee for the International AIDS Conference convening in Washington, DC in July of 2012. They requested that HIV+ women and girls be made a priority at AIDS 2012. Read the full letter here! Send an email to womenaids2012(at)gmail.com to get involved in the Make Women Count Campaign!

Check it out: PWN is one of two U.S. community partners for AIDS 2012. Stay updated on our AIDS 2012 page.

Budget Cuts Spell Crisis for Women Living with HIV

March 10, 2011- Ms. Foundation Igniting Change blog – [...] Nothing makes this more real for us at the Ms. Foundation than when our grantees report how budget cuts will impact — indeed, threaten — their own programs and their own communities. For example, just a few weeks ago, the Washington Department of Health decided to cut funding for the state’s only women-specific HIV/AIDS education and support program — a program run by Seattle-based BABES Network-YWCA, our longtime grantee [...]

Read more here

Indiana Governor, Mitch Daniels, Cuts Funds to Planned Parenthood

May 10, 2011 – By signing a measure that tightens restrictions on government abortion funding, Gov. Daniels effectively cut off funding to Planned Parenthood, the first state in the nation to do so. As discussed in the Huffington Post, “the law cuts off about $3 million in public funds used to pay for services such as birth control, cancer screening and tests for sexually transmitted diseases.” Planned Parenthood and the ACLU-Indiana are working to reverse this decision.

Read the full article here as well as what you can do to take action.

In honor of National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day: HIV+ women and allies respond to threatened future of services for women across the U.S.

March 10, 2011- Seattle, WA –– A recent decision by the WA State Department of Health to eliminate all funding to the only women-specific support program for HIV-positive women in Washington State may be part of a larger national trend to defund women-centered services, say advocates.

Read more here

Stand with Planned Parenthood: Sign a letter to Congress to prevent the de-funding of all federal funds for Planned Parenthood!

On February 18, 2011, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to bar Planned Parenthood health centers from all federal funding for birth control, cancer screenings, HIV testing, and other lifesaving care. Sign-on to inform Congress to stop this law.

For more information on this issue, visit Planned Parenthood’s website.