XVI INTERNATIONAL AIDS CONFERENCE

The International AIDS Conference (IAC) is held once every two years and is attended by scientists, health care providers, political, community, and business leaders, journalists, governmental, non-governmental, and intergovernmental representatives, and people living with HIV/AIDS. The XVI IAC, which took place in Toronto in 2006, was headlined by appearances by Bill Clinton and Bill Gates, and drew more than 25,000 people. Firelight seized on the visibility and proximity of the 2006 IAC to organize and participate in several high-profile events. The highlight of these events was the launch of our document, From Faith to Action, which advocates for strengthening family and community care, rather than institutionalizing orphans and vulnerable children. In total more than 1,500 copies of the full-length version of From Faith to Action and 2,600 copies of the summary were distributed at the IAC and related pre-conferences and events.

PRE-LAUNCH “BUZZ”
To attract attention to the launch of From Faith to Action amid hundreds of competing events at the IAC, Firelight staff distributed promotional information packets to more than 40 staff members, Advisory Board members, grantee-partners, and friends of Firelight. Each packet contained multiple copies of the publication, invitations to the launch events, pens with “Support Family and Community Care for Children” messaging, and buttons inscribed with the directive, “F2A – Ask Me.” The “Buzz Bags” encouraged a personal approach to spreading the message of supporting family and community care for children. The packets also included generalized Talking Points emphasizing From Faith to Action’s key messages, including the fact that children grow best in families and institutional care should be a last resort.

THE RECEPTION
From Faith to Action was initially launched on August 15 at an evening reception featuring brief introductions from Firelight Founder and CEO Kerry Olson, Firelight Executive Director Jennifer Astone, and grantee-partner Moses Zulu of Development Aid from People to People – Children’s Town (DAPP – Children’s Town) in Zambia, as well as some of our partners, including Julia Greenberg of American Jewish World Service, UNICEF’s Doug Webb, Peter Laugharn from the Bernard van Leer Foundation, and Martha Newsome of World Vision. More than 60 people attended the reception at a hotel near the conference center. Guests included representatives from UNICEF, American Jewish World Service, Johnson & Johnson, the Bernard van Leer Foundation, Elma Philanthropies, and Family Health International.

THE LAUNCH
On August 16, 2006, Firelight held an official public launch for From Faith to Action on the Main Stage of the IAC’s Global Village in front of a crowd of 150 people. The launch took the form of an hour-and-a-half panel discussion entitled, An Institution is Not a Home: Upholding the Rights of Children to Receive the Love and Care of a Family. The panel, which was moderated by the Chief of UNICEF’s HIV/AIDS Section, Peter McDermott, offered perspectives on the issues raised in From Faith to Action from a variety of donor organizations and community-based groups. Panel members included: Kerry Olson (Firelight Foundation), Julia Greenberg (American Jewish World Service), Geoff Foster (Family AIDS Caring Trust), Moses Zulu (DAPP – Children’s Town), Peter Kayiira Byansi (Kamwokya Christian Caring Community, Uganda), and Jean Webster (Zimbabwe Orphans Through Extended Hands). Between presentations, short video segments highlighted the impact of community-based organizations.

At the close of the presentation, more than 35 representatives from endorsing organizations and Firelight grantee-partners were invited to take the stage to be recognized and to join in a message of solidarity for children.

ENVISIONING THE FUTURE PRE-CONFERENCE SYMPOSIUM
In April 2005 Firelight, the Bernard van Leer Foundation, and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance joined The Teresa Group– a Toronto-based HIV/AIDS service organization – to form The Coalition for Children Affected by AIDS (CCABA). CCABA’s mission was to improve the visibility of children’s issues at the IAC and hold a two-day pre-conference symposium, Envisioning the Future. Firelight made a two-year grant totaling $25,000 to The Teresa Group to fund CCABA and Envisioning the Future.

Envisioning the Future proved to be a successful international forum for discussing best practices and emerging issues related to children affected by HIV/AIDS. The topics discussed included: prevention of mother to child transmission, community support for orphans and vulnerable children, and children’s psychosocial issues. More than 350 pediatricians, researchers, donors, scholars, and activists – including many Firelight grantee-partners and staff members – took part in the two-day event. From Faith to Action was distributed at the pre-conference.

Our CEO Kerry Olson together with Fikile Ngcobo of Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, Dr. Shaffiq Essajee of the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative, and Peter Laugharn, Executive Director, Bernard van Leer Foundation, presented on the interactive plenary panel Funders Forum: Mobilizing Resources for a Sustained Response on the first day of the pre-conference. Major themes of the presentation were the importance of funding at the community level, of supporting community leadership, and of respecting community ownership.

Work is underway to prepare a second symposium before the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City in August 2008. Firelight is continuing to collaborate with CCABA as it furthers its work.

FIRELIGHT PRESENTATIONS
Kerry Olson presented on the closing plenary panel at the Interfaith Pre-Conference, Faith in Action: Keeping the Promise. During the panel, Challenges and Opportunities for Collaboration, she shared some of the insights and experiences of Firelight as a private foundation that has worked with faith-based organizations to support the needs of children and families made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS.

Firelight Grants Analyst Britt Ehrhardt led a one-hour panel discussion consisting of grantee-partners and a Firelight in-country resource person on issues of psychosocial support for children orphaned or made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS. The panel was entitled, Psychosocial Support in Action: Grassroots Approaches to Promoting Wellbeing Among Children Affected by AIDS. Participants included Loveness Chirwa of Zimbabwe’s Youth for a Child in Christ, Reuben Mubiru of Uganda’s Kyetume Community Based Health Care Programme, and Firelight’s resource person in Malawi, Howard Kasiya. The conversation included a discussion of how psychosocial support is defined, how the participants identify children in need of psychosocial support, and what interventions exist.

Britt was joined by Jennifer Astone in presenting a poster on Achieving Accountability by Supporting Communities Through Small Grants. The goal of the poster was to address the responsibility donors have to their grantee-partners in responding to local needs.

GRANTEE-PARTNER TEA AND MEETING WITH CEO AND FOUNDER
On Sunday, August 13, Kerry Olson hosted a tea and meeting for the Firelight grantee-partners attending the conference. The two-hour event provided an excellent forum for grantee-partners to share their work, to network with other community-based leaders, and to learn more about Firelight’s founding.

GRANTEE-PARTNER PRESENTATIONS
META grants enabled the following grantee-partner representatives to attend Envisioning the Future and the IAC:

• Loveness Chirwa of Zimbabwe’s Youth for a Child in Christ participated in Firelight’s Global Village Psychosocial Support Panel.

• Barbara Kenyon of the Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Programme in South Africa gave an oral presentation on ABC – abstain, by faithful, condomise – Africa’s non-solutions. So what will work?

• Lesotho Durham Link Coalition’s Stephen Mabula was scheduled to take part in the Psychosocial Support Panel, though he was ultimately unable to attend the IAC.

• Reuben Mubiru, of the Kyetume Community Based Health Care Programme in Uganda participated in the Psychosocial Support Panel.

• Cathy Sakala from Zambia’s Lupwa Lwabumi Trust presented a poster on Building Family Circles of Care and Support for Vulnerable Children and Families Affected by HIV/AIDS.

• Positive Women in Action & Development’s Mphatso Tambala also had a poster presentation on Empowering Youth to Report Child Sexual Abuse.

Firelight also supported the participation of:

• Maria Porter of Youth Philanthropy Worldwide: New Global Citizens of the United States.

• Moses Zulu of DAPP Children’s Town, who participated in the reception and launch of From Faith to Action.

• Beven Mwachande of Esandleni Sothando in Zimbabwe, who was a panelist at Envisioning the Future.