The International Federation of RC/RC (IFRC/RC) held a two-day meeting on July 20-21, 2012, before XIX International AIDS Conference started, in which 79 IFRC/RC representatives participated. The meeting was held at the Headquarters of the American Red Cross (ARC). Nan Buzard, ARC International Services Department Director, Patrick Couteau, the head of the Global Fund Programs to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria (IFRC/RC) greeted participants.

The topic of the meeting was, without a doubt, Red Cross activities in the area of counteracting HIV/AIDS – lessons learnt, best experience, problem areas, and the strategy of actions. The first day was devoted to the Global Program to fight HIV and the work performed by the Red Cross Global Alliance for HIV/AIDS. Successful and unsuccessful practices were considered; new approaches were presented, etc. 

Special attention was paid to strengthening work with donors through the improvement of the monitoring and evaluation system, to be precise, the presentation of the technique to tell stories of success. Jennifer Lentfer, ARC monitoring and evaluation advisor, made a very interesting presentation with the training elements. The main conclusion was that even a perfectly done report cannot be considered effective and comprehensive. 

Margaret Elliot, National Coordinator for HIV of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, made a presentation about a gender approach to address the issues related to HIV.   In many countries of the world, women and girls have a limited access to prevention, treatment, and care and are subjected to stigma and discrimination, due to traditions, religious beliefs, economic conditions, and other reasons. Margarita shared experience about addressing such issues.   

A session devoted to young volunteers and their leading role in fighting against HIV was very active and emotional. It was delivered by young volunteers of the Norwegian Red Cross.   

Patrick Couteau presented a new handbook to train volunteers HIV prevention and palliative care. The participants had an opportunity of designing training sessions, which was both interesting and useful. 

Director of the Technical Support Group Anna Zagaynova (Irkutsk Regional branch) took part in the meeting. The Resource Center made banners about program activities of the RRC in the area of HIV/AIDS and the Resource Center. The banners were exhibited and presented to the meeting participants on the beginning of the second day during and aroused an active interest. The idea of a resource center itself was very interesting, as there are no resource centers anywhere else.  Many participants mentioned later that the creation of Resource Centers is a way to program sustainability and improvement of service delivery. 

The gained knowledge, skills, and information are planned to be used during the trainings held by the RRC Resource Center and other National Societies and also to develop various methodological and technical manuals. 

Anna Zagaynova,

Director of the Technical Support Group

RRC Resource Center