Click here to sign up for our mailing list to keep up-to-date with the latest Twinning Center news and activities!

View Recent Newsletters

For more information please contact: Laura Faulconer Senior Program Officer, HIV/AIDS Twinning Center AIHA/Washington, DC Tel. 202.789.1136 lfaulconer@aiha.com

PEPFAR-funded initiative will train journalist-editor teams from target countries, help stimulate accurate coverage of AIDS epidemic WASHINGTON, DC, November 27, 2006—US Ambassador to Zambia Carmen Martinez officially opened today a five-day international workshop for editors and senior journalists from Zambia and 13 other countries that have partnered with the United States government in fighting HIV/AIDS in support of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Titled “Editorial Leadership in HIV/AIDS Reporting: Changing Hearts, Minds, and Behaviors,” the workshop has attracted 32 editors and journalists from Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guyana, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zambia. Sponsored by PEPFAR, the workshop has been organized through the joint efforts of the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy and USAID in conjunction with the Zambia Institute of Mass Communication (ZAMCOM), the American International Health Alliance’s HIV/AIDS Twinning Center, and the Kaiser Family Foundation. Speaking at the opening, Ambassador Martinez said, “As journalists, you have attained an important position in your society. You, at the touch of your fingers, have the power to inform, to teach, to persuade, to bring change, to fight wrongs, to champion heroism, to inspire, to expose, and—in this case—to save lives. The words you write, the reports you film, and the broadcasts you record have the power to educate.” The workshop will address the role of editors in HIV/AIDS reporting, key problems encountered in reporting on the pandemic, women and HIV/AIDS, internet resources, and ethical guidelines for reporting and photojournalism. Participants will interact with experienced health reporters from the United States via digital video conference from the American Center. They will also visit four sites in Lusaka and prepare stories on HIV/AIDS. Zambian commentator and HIV/AIDS activist Dr. Mannasseh Phiri, US journalist Suzanne Marmion, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation journalist Jean Carter, and US Embassy Public Affairs Officer Christopher Wurst will serve as facilitators for the workshop. On World AIDS Day, December 1, the participants will attend a panel discussion led by first Republican President Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia Health Education and Communications Trust Director Ms. Chilufya Mwaba-Phiri, former health minister and AIDS activist Nkandu Luo, and HIV-positive teenager Memory Phiri. Funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the HIV/AIDS Twinning Center mobilizes and coordinates the resources of US healthcare providers to effectively build capacity to reduce HIV infection rates and provide care to those infected with, or affected by, HIV/AIDS in the Emergency Plan’s 15 focus countries in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. For more information on the HIV/AIDS Twinning Center, visit www.twinningagainstaids.org.  Created in 1992 by a consortium of major healthcare provider associations and professional medical education organizations, AIHA establishes and manages programs and twinning partnerships between health-related institutions in the United States and their counterparts in Africa, Asia, Eurasia, and the Caribbean. For more information about AIHA, visit our Web site at www.aiha.com.