EI members from 10 countries in the region travelled to Buenos Aires to participate in the 3rd Latin American Region Workshop for the EI EFAIDS programme, which began on 26 April.
The four-day workshop with its mix of knowledge-sharing sessions, presentations, debates and out-reach visits was a great opportunity for unions to share advice and experiences on implementing the EFAIDS Programme. It provided an excellent means for all participants to validate their work and to further their knowledge and understanding of HIVAIDS, in the context of their unions, schools and society.
Early in the workshop, union representatives highlighted the merits of working to tackle AIDS within the context of free public quality education. Unions committed to seeking greater linkages between their work on Education for All and HIV prevention. In addition to evaluating the programme of activities carried out during 2008, the unions explored how best to integrate the EFAIDS Programme into union structures.
Argentinean union and host, CTERA has been taking a proactive stance in prioritising HIV prevention education and acknowledging AIDS as a workplace issue for more than a decade. Through the workshop, Latin American unions were able to gain first-hand knowledge of how CTERA has translated this activism into services for its members. The assembled unions visited the CTERA HIV testing centre and learned more about the partnerships that CTERA has fostered.
Both CTERA and Brazilian union CNTE have established working partnerships with their government on HIV and EFA issues. Representatives of the Ministries of Education of Brazil and Argentina attended the conference and made very useful interventions, thus encouraging other unions to adopt similar partnerships with their governments.
Participating in the Buenos Aires workshop were CTERA, CEA and CONADU from Argentina; STEG from Guatemala; FECODE of Colombia; CGTEN-ANDEN from Nicaragua; ANDE and SEC, both from Costa Rica; ADP of the Dominican Republic; FETRAENSEÑZA from Venezuela; CNTE of Brazil; and COLPROSUMH and COPRUMH from Honduras. EI staff from the Latin America Regional Office and the Brussels Office, and a representative from the Education Development Centre also took part.
To learn more about the EI EFAIDS Programme in Latin America visit www.ei-ie.org/efaids or www.ei-ie-al.org/portal/default.htm