ARASA Trained Trainers Alumni

15/03/2023

2023 TaLP

15/09/2021

REMINDER

You can still join us for the virtual CONSULTATION that ARASA will be hosting with support from UNAIDS on the significance of the inequalities focus of the Global AIDS Strategy and Political Declaration on Ending AIDS by 2030 for the HIV response in East and Southern Africa (see attached flyer).

Date: Thursday, 16 September
Time: 10:30 – 13:00 SAST

Register at: https://bit.ly/ESA_CSO_Consultation

Please feel free to share this invitation and the attached poster with your network and others who may be interested.

Interpretation services will be available in Portuguese and French.

14/09/2021

Invitation to complete short survey: Significance of addressing inequalities and ending HIV in Eastern and Southern Africa

ARASA is inviting you (and others in your network) to complete a short survey that will generate quantitative data to supplement the qualitative data we hope to gather during the "East and Southern Africa Civil Society Consultation on the Significance of the Inequality focus of the Global AIDS Strategy" next week Thursday.

The survey should not take more than 10 minutes and is available here:
https://docs.google.com/.../1FAIpQLSccypnhFzG.../viewform...

14/09/2021

ARASA with support from UNAIDS will be hosting a virtual Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) consultation on the significance of the inequalities focus of the Global AIDS Strategy and Political Declaration on Ending AIDS by 2030 for the HIV response in East and Southern Africa (see attached flyer).
Date: Thursday, 16 September
Time: 10:30 – 13:00 SAST
Register at: https://bit.ly/ESA_CSO_Consultation
Please feel free to share this invitation and the attached poster with your network and others who may be interested.
Please let us know if you will require interpretation (Portuguese and or French).

11/01/2021

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS:
ARASA 2021 Training and Leadership Programme (TaLP)

Deadline: 25 January 2021

- Do you want to create change in the communities you serve?
- Are you passionate about promoting access to s*xual & reproductive health and rights (SRHR) including HIV prevention, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity; access to safe abortion; and SRHR in Universal Health Coverage?
- Are you interested in learning some innovative skills to sharpen your advocacy on Bodily Autonomy and Integrity?
- Do you believe that everyone deserves access to universally accessible, acceptable, affordable & quality s*xual and reproductive health care?

Then the ARASA Training and Leadership Programme is the Masterclass for you!

FORMAT OF THE 2021 TaLP

Applicants should be aware that the 2021 TaLP will include online components as some aspects of the training programme will be offered virtually. Online components will be designed to allow opportunities to interact, share experiences and learning. Participants must be committed to completing both the online and face-to-face components of the 2021 annual training programme.

People living with HIV, women and adolescent girls and young women, s*x workers, le***an, gay, bis*xual, transgender or inters*x (LGBTI), people who use drugs and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

To apply and to upload your supporting documents visit - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1UdJvoFObXtuq939C1Y6y0ffmGNNixOyKfFRN6LfQtnU/viewform?gxids=7628&edit_requested=true

To read the full Call for Applications visit - https://www.arasa.info/blog-news-details/call-for-applications-arasa-2021-training-and-leadership-programme-talp

Please note that applications without supporting documents and late applications will not be accepted.

24/11/2020

Dear Partners and Colleagues

ARASA with the help of a consultant is assessing the effectiveness of ARASA's online capacity building and advocacy efforts related to Human Rights, addressing and monitoring structural barriers to HIV prevention and SRHR and Gender Transformation since the COVID 19 pandemic began.

This assessment will be an opportunity to explore what has worked and what has not worked and key strategies that can be used to ensure that PITCH partners and the ARASA partners at community, national and regional level are able to strengthen their virtual advocacy engagements.

We invite you to fill in this survey through the link below , as part of the ARASA rapid assessment of online training, online tools and advocacy capacity building initiatives.

https://forms.gle/fAhzYg2S6ZiieAQU9

Thank you,

We are assessing the effectiveness of ARASA online capacity building and advocacy efforts related to Human Rights, addressing and monitoring structural barriers to HIV prevention and SRHR since the COVID 19 pandemic began. This assessment will be an opportunity to explore what has worked and what ha...

12/10/2020

CALL FOR ONLINE COURSE APPLICATIONS

Did you know that HIV criminalisation is a bad policy based on bad science?

Did you know that people are being prosecuted for allegedly transmitting HIV through spitting, kissing and exposure of saliva through bites?

Would you like to participate in a free online moderated course?

Do you work with Civil Society Organisation based in Botswana, Angola, Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, DRC Congo, Mauritius, Comoros, Madagascar and Seychelles?

Try this!!

Criminalisation of HIV transmission, exposure or non-disclosure

2020 Intake for Online Short Course on Criminalisation of HIV transmission, exposure and non-disclosure

About ARASA
The AIDS and Rights Alliance for southern Africa (ARASA) was established in 2002 as a regional partnership of civil society organisations working in 18 countries in Southern and East Africa. Between 2019 and 2021, the partnership will work to promote respect for and the protection of the rights to bodily autonomy and integrity for all in order to reduce inequality, especially gender inequality and promote health, dignity and wellbeing in southern and east Africa.


About the Course:

Over the last 6 years, ARASA has leveraged on its online training Massive Open Online Course, to host a 4-6-week short online course online on Criminalisation of HIV Non-Disclosure, Exposure and Transmission. This course is offered to interested individuals across the globe; with the aim of increasing knowledge on HIV criminalisation as part of the advocacy preparedness strategy. This course has resulted to a cadre of advocates/activists advocating for enabling and supportive environments for people living with HIV and their loved ones.

This online course is funded by Robert Carr Fund.


Why a course on Criminalisation of HIV transmission, exposure and non-disclosure

The Criminalisation of HIV Non-Disclosure, Exposure and Transmission, often referred to as ‘HIV Criminalisation’, is the unjust application of criminal law based solely on HIV status – either by enacting and applying HIV-specific criminal laws, or by applying general criminal laws exclusively or disproportionately against people with HIV.

Criminalising people based on their HIV status undermines public health efforts to control the epidemic and violates the human rights of the individuals who are persecuted by the law. There is also no evidence that applying the criminal law to HIV has reduced or led to better control of the epidemic. The resultant impact of these approaches is generally negative, promoting fear and HIV related stigma. These often adversely affect the relationships between patients and health-care providers, and can discourage people from seeking HIV testing and treatment.
In the HIV Justice Network report Advancing HIV Justice 3, it was reported that a total of 72 countries had adopted laws that specifically allow for HIV criminalisation, either because the law is HIV-specific, or because HIV is specified as a disease covered by the law (sometimes also punishing people with HIV more severely).

Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the greatest number of countries with HIV criminalisation laws: 29 countries.

Amidst the immensely challenging environment described above, ARASA recognises the need to scale-up information sharing and sustain civil society capacity for advocacy for rights-based approaches and holding governments accountable towards increasing advocacy towards decriminalising HIV. ARASA believes that this can be attained through training and strengthening the capacity of civil society, key influencers, legal practitioners, law makers, health care workers and providers as well both duty and moral bearers through this online short course.

This online course will ensure that participants;
Learn how to identify harmful HIV laws, including cases which have been recorded showing the impact of laws which criminalise people living with HIV.
Master the foundational steps and best practices of HIV decriminalisation.
Network and develop strategies to advocate for removal of laws which harm people living with HIV.

How to Apply:

Kindly click or copy and paste the link for application form below to apply for the course:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1NIeP6nSTxIlX3aMMx8PCNxxnOHWClPPxWPun65piynE/edit

For any questions please write to Bruce Tushabe at [email protected] and copy [email protected]

Deadline:

All applications must be received by no later than close of business 13 October 2020. Kindly note that applications received after the deadline will not be considered.

Successful applicants will be notified by 15 October 2020

The course will start on 19 October 2020 and end on 20 November 2020.

Create a new survey on your own or with others at the same time. Choose from a variety of survey types and analyze results in Google Forms. Free from Google.

23/04/2020

Colleagues, please do apply if interested.

CALL FOR 5 WEEK ONLINE COURSE APPLICATIONS

ADVOCACY AND MONITORING OF SEXUAL ORIENTATION, GENDER IDENTITY and EXPRESSION (SOGIE)

SOGIE Online Short Course 2020 Intake

About ARASA

Established 16 years ago, the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA) was created to galvanise a movement of progressive civil society actors to advance a human rights-based response to HIV in Southern and East Africa. ARASA set out to build a cadre of civil society organisations in the region to raise awareness and understanding by both communities and policy makers about the need for human rights to be at the centre of national HIV (and subsequently TB) responses and to strongly advocate for a human rights-based response.

ARASA has successfully raised and increased the visibility of sensitive and contentious human rights issues such as the s*xual and reproductive health and rights of women, s*x workers, transgender people, men who have s*x with men and people who use drugs. This has contributed significantly to enhanced efforts by governmental and regional bodies, to mainstream human rights in HIV and TB policy and programming and has contributed towards the removal of legal and policy barriers in several countries in the region.


About the Course:

This online course will introduce participants to terminologies, intervention areas and advocacy strategies on SOGIE, human rights and bodily autonomy and integrity related issues. The course will equip participants with knowledge and skills to facilitate dialogues on equal rights, at the community level, with a long term view of challenging mindsets and shifting public opinion on SOGIE.


Why SOGIE?

Systematic s*xual and reproductive rights violations, especially against women and key populations, fuelled by barriers embedded in laws, policies, the economy, and in social norms and values—especially gender inequality— persist across southern and east Africa and, in some countries are escalating[1]. These include, laws that restrict women’s and adolescents’ access to health services by requiring third-party authorisation, laws that require service providers to report personal information, laws that criminalise same-s*x relationships and s*x work and criminal laws that prohibit provision of and access to abortion services[2]. The situation is fuelled and exacerbated by new waves of conservatism and fundamentalism that amplify state-sponsored violence and criminalisation and undermine individual agency. Punitive laws, policies and practices remain the ‘norm’, with severe implications for the right to health of individuals and responses to health by countries.

[1] Guttmacher–Lancet Commission. (2018). Accelerate progress— s*xual and reproductive health and rights for all
[2]Ibid

This online course on SOGIE will ensure that participants;

Attain knowledge on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) in relation to Sexual Reproductive Health and bodily autonomy and integrity.
Build your understanding of why it is necessary to have inclusive policies and SOGIE friendly interventions.
Create, monitor and advocate for holistic programming on SOGIE, including removing legal and structural barriers that impede SOGIE.


How to Apply:

Kindly click or copy and paste the link for application form below to apply for the course:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1r5cPLrVGkbt8lKGfu_MTnf1bkMZSw24MdcLRofmab1A/edit

For any questions please write to Bruce Tushabe at [email protected] and copy [email protected].

Deadline:

All applications must be received by no later than close of business 15 May 2020. Kindly note that applications received after the deadline will not be considered.

Successful applicants will be notified as they apply.

The course will start on 18 May 2020 and end on 19 June 2020.

The course is free of charge and everyone is eligible to apply.

28/02/2020

ARASA TaLP participants 2020 cohort pose for a photo on their last day of module 1.

20/11/2019

ARASA 2019 Training and Leadeship trainers chanting slogans on Universal Health Coverage.