Sharing of Community Life Competence experiences at the International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific
The Constellation and four country teams (Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and Philippines) presented the Community Life Competence Process at a booth at the ICAAP in Busan. About 100 people attended the oral presentation “Reverse Development - When Dutch NGOs learned from Thai NGOs on Interfaith Work and HIV/AIDS” but no one attended the Constellation friends meeting. “People who are usually interested in the Constellation approach are those working closely with communities, many of which didn’t come to the conference because of visa issues and a lack of scholarships,” explained Usa Duongsaa, Constellation coach.
There were 2,998 participants from 64 countries participating in the 10th ICAAP in Busan. The Constellation’s was one of 35 booths present in the conference. Usa and other facilitators decorated the booth with the Constellation’s logo, photos from 6 countries participating in the ADB-funded project, the Constellation’s poster, and the posters from the competence teams from Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand.
Usa presented two poster presentations, one oral presentation, one skills building session and organized one presentation of the CLCP at the Constellation booth. Firstly, Usa presented two poster presentations: 1) “Factors Affecting Success in Promoting AIDS Competence in Cambodia, Thailand, and the Philippines” and 2) “Understanding HIV/AIDS-Related Stigma Is Crucial to HIV/AIDS Work!”.
Secondly, Usa gave 1 oral presentation in the session titled “Invoking Empathy In The Spiritual - The Religious Response”.
“My presentation was the only one of 6 presentations in the session which looked beyond the border of country work in to inter-country and presented an experience on south-north learning/sharing. There were about 100 participants in the room. Both the 10-minute presentation and hand-outs were well-received.
Thirdly, Usa facilitated a skills-building session on self-assessment on behalf of John-Piermont Montilla (who could not got to ICAAP). Even though it was a huge room consisting of 2 connecting conference rooms, only 2 participants showed up.
Finally, facilitators organized a presentation of the Community Life Competence Process at the booth but no one came.
“I think we are affected by a number of factors that were beyond our control,” explained Usa Duongsaa after the event. “Few community people attended the congress because of a lack of scholarships. Some people, including Injection Drug Users, didn’t get a visa to attend the conference. Moreover, repression of protesters by security discouraged participants,” concluded Usa."
