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From: <catalystasia@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, May 11, 2011 at 3:54 PM
Subject: [asiacatalyst_news] Asia Catalyst Update - May 2011
To: asiacatalyst_news@lists.riseup.net
Asia Catalyst Update
May 2011
Here's what we did with your help in the last quarter. Our work to help
grassroots Asian AIDS groups to survive and thrive is going strong. But we need
your help to help others. Please give: www.asiacatalyst.org/get_involved
Asia Catalyst quoted in the New York Times this week, here:
http://nyti.ms/kgTdfH
[TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE]
Consulting for grassroots groups - In late 2010, we issued an open call for
applications for groups that want to be coached on organizational management
skills. We selected three groups for help in 2011.
Gisa Hartmann, our China Program Director, went to China for three weeks in
March to work with each group. In Beijing, she spent two days with Guiding
Star, a drug user advocacy group. Wang Kun, one of the organization's two
directors, had unexpectedly passed away the previous week - but the group was
determined to go ahead with our workshop and developed a draft strategic plan
for the year.
Next she went to Yunnan Province. She spent two weekend evenings in meetings
with Tonghua She, a lesbian support and advocacy group in Kunming, to fine-tune
their volunteer management system. She then hopped a car to Mengzi in the Red
River region of Yunnan, where she spent two days working with Kangxin Home, a
drug user advocacy group, on their first strategic plan.
Each of these groups will work on their plans for the next few months, with
Gisa providing support through email and phone calls. She will return in June
for a second round of workshops. Groups that seem to benefit from this round of
training will be eligible to apply for more coaching assistance later this
year.
Cohort training for NGO directors - In March, we also began a trial run of a
new approach in which we will train four NGO representatives from China's
national network of sex workers in a series of three sessions, offering
coaching and support in person and through skype in between each session. Gisa
spent a couple of days working with the secretary of the network, Cai Minghong,
and three directors from member groups on strategic planning and on training
skills. We will have two more workshop sessions in July and September, and we
will also bring them together with members of the Asia Pacific Network of Sex
Workers from Thailand and Myanmar.
Korekata AIDS Law Center - In February, Asia Catalyst hosted director Xu
Haibo in New York and Washington, DC. We gave him some training in how to hold
short, effective advocacy meetings (the "elevator pitch"). We brought him
to several law schools in New York, Philadelphia and DC, and with help from the
board, also arranged meetings with China and HIV/AIDS experts. In addition, we
met with Haibo and later with his colleagues Li Dan and Shen Tingting about
their plans to grow the organization.
Asia Report - The director of our Chinese-language site on activism in
Southeast Asia, Hou Ye, is working with the director of the site HIV in Myanmar
to develop a new shared site, Hi! Asia: HIV Information for Asia. Our
consulting program director, Ariel Herrera, helped them to develop a strategic
plan in December. AC director Meg Davis spent a day working with them on their
plan and activity timeline in March. In June, she will return to help develop
by-laws and internal financial controls to launch them as a separate,
independent NGO by the end of the year.
Myanmar - Meg also spent a day working with two representatives of the Myanmar
National Network of Sex Workers to train them in strategic planning.
Phoenix - For the past year and a half, Asia Catalyst provided subgrants and
training in planning, management, documentation and advocacy to Phoenix, a
group of sex workers in Yunnan Province. In February, based on internal issues
we were unable to resolve, we made the difficult decision to end the
partnership and refund the grants to our donors. We hope to see the
organization re-establish itself in the future.
[ONLINE RESOURCES]
In February, we published the Chinese translation of Prove It: Documenting
Rights Abuses. (Available for free download at
http://www.asiacatalyst.org/news/kipici.html)
This is the first volume to come out from our series Know It, Prove It, Change
It: A Rights Curriculum for Grassroots Groups, which we are creating jointly
with Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group and Korekata AIDS Law Center. Stay tuned
for the Thai version soon - as well as the second volume of the series, due
out later this year.
Meanwhile, our writer and editor Carol Wang is developing a series of short
handouts on or capacity-building work - two or three-page brochures on
strategic planning, volunteer management, and financial planning. These
materials will go online this summer in English and in Chinese, and will become
part of our NGO Survival Handbook later this year.
[ADVOCACY]
Compensation research - While every country in the world has had an
HIV-tainted blood disaster of some kind, China's is by far the largest in
number of victims and length of the disaster. To date, there has been no
government compensation program for the thousands of victims who became
HIV-positive due to blood sales and blood transfusions in the 1990s.
Asia Catalyst and Korekata AIDS Law Center in Beijing are partnering on a
project, sponsored by UNAIDS, to document the varying challenges faced by
victims of tainted blood transmission in China when they try to obtain
compensation. You can see our 2007 report on this issue at
http:www.asiacatalyst.org/news.html.
Universal access to treatment - In March, Meg participated in the
Asia-Pacific Regional Consultation on Universal Access in Bangkok, where she
was active in the human rights sub-group and helped to craft some targeted
recommendations on decriminalization of sex work and drug use, and on
registration of and free expression rights of NGOs.
On our quarterly trips to Asia, both Meg and Gisa engaged in advocacy meetings
in Beijing and Bangkok aimed at promoting a rights-based approach as part of
the AIDS response, and at promoting greater space for and funding for
grassroots HIV/AIDS NGOs. We'll be back in China and Thailand again in June
to follow up.
Casework - This winter, we worked with SECTION27 to draft a sign-on letter
calling for the release of jailed AIDS activist Tian Xi, and helped to get
dozens of Asian NGOs from around the Asia-Pacific region, including two
regional AIDS NGO networks, to sign onto the letter. In March, our colleague
and former fellowship recipient Chang Kun was attacked by thugs after speaking
about his work in Anhui Province. We continue to support colleagues who face
repercussions for their work, arranging visiting fellowships at overseas NGOs
and universities, writing letters of support, and monitoring their cases.
[EVENTS]
Our board of directors held two lively and well-attended cocktail parties in
New York and Washington D.C. to welcome AIDS lawyer Xu Haibo.
Meg also gave an informal presentation to China program officers who are part
of the Lingnan Lunch group at the China Institute; spoke on civil society in
China at a conference organized by Fordham University's Leitner Center; and
chaired a panel on social activism in China at the annual meeting of the
Association for Asian Studies.
[IN MEMORIAM]
We were very saddened to learn of the untimely death of our colleague Wang Kun,
co-director of Guiding Star in Beijing. Guiding Star is a leading drug user
organization, and Wang Kun was a tireless advocate for the rights of drug
users. Our thoughts are with his family and colleagues.
[ON THE HOME FRONT]
Our board of directors continues to grow. This quarter we welcomed a new
director, Ann Hotung, who has expertise on Hong Kong law. Our founding board
member Prof. Jerome Cohen moved to emeritus board member status.
Our spring graduate intern, C. Cheng, did background research for the report on
compensation for tainted blood transmissions in China. He is working this
summer as a consultant to finish the report.
This summer, we will welcome two undergraduate interns: Amy Gordon (American
University) and Preetha Swamy (Austin College).
[LEND A HAND]
Individual donations from supporters like you are essential to our ability to
help partner groups in Asia to survive and thrive.
To make a secure, tax-deductible gift via Paypal, go to
www.asiacatalyst.org/get_involved. You can also give through our Facebook Cause
page for Asia Catalyst. Or, mail a check to: Asia Catalyst, P.O. Box 20839, New
York, NY 10009.
We always welcome comments and suggestions at info@asiacatalyst.org.
Get involved! To find out about the many ways you can contribute to the work of
Asia Catalyst and their partners in Asia, please visit
http://www.asiacatalyst.org/get_involved/ or join our facebook Cause at
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/117443.
To unsubscribe from the Asia Catalyst news mailing list, please send an email to
asiacatalyst_news-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net
--
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