2004 Annual Report Panos Institute - Caribbean
Panos Caribbean . Panos
Offices Around the World . Job Opportunities
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Project Highlights 2004:
Public Health (in particular HIV/AIDS)
"Journalist training programme at the global level
on critical public health issues." Panos collaborates
in an effort to establish a multi-foundation multi-year grant programme
to train developing country journalists in critical health problems,
such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB. The programme intends to fund
workshops, conferences and fellowships.
Michael McDowell, Senior Fellow at the Washington office and Board
member, continued in 2004 to advise the Bill and Melinda Gates and
Hewlett Foundations, and the Aspen Institute by putting together
a report, mapping at the international level who is doing what,
where and how in public health journalism. Further, his work resulted
in the launch in October of a Request for Applications by Gates,
Knight and Soros Foundations, which will lead to pilot projects
in 2005.
The Panos Haiti Director gave several presentations on our varied
experience in health journalism, in Washington, DC and the Dominican
Republic in March, and in Haiti in April.
"Promoting participation, ownership and accountability
within the response to HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean."
Since 2002, we have worked with various other offices in the Panos
network to develop the Global HIV/AIDS Programme (GAP). This year,
GAP received significant funding from the Danish International Development
Agency (DANIDA) and the UK Department for International Development
(DFID) which allowed us to start a comprehensive and longer-term
programme. The Panos Carica component of GAP commenced in September
and is expected to run for many years to come.
Present activities include: (a) Stakeholders consultations with
PLWHA and youth; (b) Journalist training seminars; (c) Production
of print and radio features; (d) Media and writing fellowships;
(e) Production of a series of "perspective papers"; (f)
Development of a Caribbean GAP Strategy;(g) Preparation of a paper
on what Panos has done (history and methodologies) in the Caribbean
regarding HIV/AIDS; and (h) Monitoring and evaluation activities.
In order to lead and implement this large programme, as well as
connect it to other Panos and non-Panos Caribbean initiatives, we
recruited a new officer in October, who is based in Port-au-Prince.
Stake holder consultations aim to bring together either representatives
of groupings of PLWHA, or youth and discuss various aspects of their
participation and ownership in national activities and policy. Each
forum also briefly introduces advocacy training, so that these groups
can promote the accountability of governments and coordinating mechanisms.
We held the first two of a region-wide series of stake holder consultations
in November and December in Haiti. Similar activities are planned
in 2005 for Jamaica, Barbados and the DR.
The consultations in Haiti took place as follows: (a) 28-29 November,
consultation with PLWHA in Port-au-Prince; (b) 1 December, youth
consultations in Port-au-Prince (Cité L'éternel and
Decayettes), (c) 4 December, youth consultation in Croix-des-Bouquets.
The two-day PLWHA consultation, 28-29 November 2004, was conducted
by Panos and the Association for National Solidarity (ASON), an
association of people infected and affected by HIV. 16 participants
discussed several key issues, such as health services to PLWHA and
legal aspects of the epidemic. The participants brought forward
ideas, opinions and personal points of view about health services
in Haiti and social and economic support to PLWHA. The second day
focused on recommendations for improving services and the treatment
of PLWHA. All information is included in a summary report, distributed
to ASON members across the country.
On World AIDS Day - 1 December, Panos and "Perspectives on
Health and Development (PESADEV)", a youth oriented educational
and development organization, conducted youth consultations on HIV/AIDS
with two youth clubs. The clubs are located respectively in Cité
L'éternel and Decayettes, two slums in Port-au-Prince with
a high level of violence. PESADEV works regularly with these youth
clubs, made all administrative arrangements and assisted in facilitating
the consultation as well. There were 75 youngsters (between 13 and
19 years old) in the sessions in Cité l'eternel, while 38
others (between 11 and 14 years of age) participated in the sessions
in Decayettes.
The aim of this session was to have participants reflect, in particular
the young women, on the seriousness of the epidemic, adopt responsible
behaviour, and cast a critical eye on the various services in their
communities. Panos led a plenary STI/HIV education session and an
open question & answer session where any and all questions were
fielded from the youth. Afterwards, the youngsters split into smaller
groups to discuss their participation and ownership of HIV/AIDS
initiatives, guided by group questionnaires. We collected views
and recommendations and the report of these sessions can be used
as a guide for organizations willing to work with youth in these
slums.
On 4 December, Panos conducted a youth consultation on HIV/AIDS
in the Croix-des-Bouquets area (approx. 20 km Northeast of Port-au-Prince)
with 30 young adults, ages 18 – 26, former or current members
of a youth journalist group. The attendants participated in activities
such as a knowledge quiz, and after plenary presentations, the participants
split into groups to produce an informative document on their views.
Panos conducted several journalist training seminars on HIV/AIDS
reporting this year, in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Training
focused on the themes of participation, ownership and accountability.
While short introductions were given by experts and representatives
of health organizations working in the area of HIV/AIDS mitigation,
much time was devoted to developing innovative productions in teams,
critiquing, and discussing the role of the media within the pandemic.
In Haiti, Panos conducted a 3-day journalist training seminar from
15-17 December 2004 in collaboration with the Centre for Communication
on HIV/AIDS (CECOSIDA). Themes were: HIV/AIDS in the press; Epidemiology
of HIV in world, Caribbean and Haiti; Prevention programmes; Testing
services; International financing of HIV/AIDS programmes; Community
outreach and services; and How to interview PLWHA. Approximately
30 journalists from print, radio and TV participated. The seminar
actively explored follow-up activities (in terms of training, production,
networking) for 2005 within the scope of GAP. It was intended to
include also some journalists from the Dominican Republic, however,
due to difficulties in communications and logistics, the invitees
were not able to honour the Panos invitation at this time.
This year, we distributed several feature articles and radio programmes
on HIV/AIDS themes. We (re)distributed articles which came out around
the Bangkok Conference (by Doris Pantaleon, Itania Maria, Hugo Merveille
and other people on the Panos team). Further, in the scope of a
fellowship, Ryan Gilkes of Barbados produced three English-language
radio programmes and three transcribed articles, respectively on
GHESKIO Centres, HIV/AIDS education in Haiti, and the UNAIDS programme.
Moreover, Hugo Merveille brought out an article on "Women and
the fight against HIV", regarding their access to treatment
around World AIDS Day. Panos staff also prepared a radio resource
pack for World AIDS Day.
In the first few months of GAP, we developed writing fellowships,
a new concept in Panos Carica. Three journalists in Haiti who are
active in HIV/AIDS education and have written respectively stories,
poems and a novel, proposed to publish their writings together in
book form, as a novel way of communicating on HIV/AIDS and stimulating
debate.
During negotiations on the joint fellowship, one journalist withdrew
from the original group, because he decided to launch his own book
of stories on a book fair in May 2005. We contributed a large portion
of the production and printing budget for the novel (500 copies)
and the book of poetry (1,000 copies). Both books were launched
on World AIDS Day, 1 December 2004 at a successful book signing,
which was endorsed by Panos. A certain percentage of the books were
also given away as prizes during HIV-related radio broadcasts that
day.
In late 2003, we started a series of perspective papers,
featuring stakeholders (women, PLWHA, youth, media and HIV/AIDS
service organizations) on the theme "participation, ownership,
accountability." The first one, entitled "Who's
voice is heard? Agenda-Setting on HIV/AIDS policy in Haiti,"
was expanded with more interviews, more information on treatment
and a larger geographic scope. Similarly, we commissioned journalists
to prepare perspective papers on the Dominican Republic, Barbados
and Jamaica.
"Media activities around the XVth International AIDS
Conference, 11-16 July 2004, Bangkok, Thailand." This
global activity was organized in the scope of the Panos Global AIDS
Programme, with funding from the World Bank (Human Development Network).
The goal was to significantly enhance public debate on the Bangkok
Conference, particularly in four countries - India, Ethiopia, Zambia
and the Dominican Republic. We added Haiti to the group of countries.
In the Dominican Republic, two journalists, both print journalists,
were selected by the Circle of Health Journalists (CIPESA) for Bangkok
fellowships. A pre-conference workshop was held for them on 17,18
and 21 June in Santo Domingo, comprising of reporting visits to
programmes and projects sponsored by the World Bank. Because of
the upcoming change in government (by 17 August), rather then governmental
programmes, we decided to visit five NGOs and community programmes,
which benefit from World Bank funding for HIV/AIDS activities. The
journalists brought out two articles, published in "El Caribe"
and "Listin Diario."
Panos, in collaboration with CECOSIDA, also organized a pre-conference
workshop of one day in Port-au-Prince on 6 July, to mobilize the
press, featuring several speakers who were going to participate
in the Bangkok Conference. 27 journalists from print, radio and
TV attended this workshop.
In addition to full sponsorship of the two Dominican reporters,
we provided partial sponsorship to two reporters from Haiti (one
print, one radio). During the Bangkok Conference, each journalist
in the group brought out daily reports. The three print journalists
participated in the Panos daily press debriefs and participated
actively in the production of "Panoscope," a special Conference
bulletin.
Immediately after the Conference, we held a press conference in
Port-au-Prince on the results and impacts. In Santo Domingo, on
12-13 November, we organized an informative seminar in collaboration
with CIPESA. The 24 participants received and debated information
coming out of Bangkok during the first day, while a community visit
was organized on the second day to see the Tu Mujer project "Civil
Society and Municipal Planning in the Fight against HIV/AIDS."
In order to encourage more cross-border collaboration between the
DR and Haiti, two representatives of CECOSIDA participated and the
journalistic training exercises were conducted by a Haitian trainer.
Body of
Annual Report 2004
Other Project Highlights 2004:
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