Student Advocacy

Students Taking Action on Global AIDS

Students Organize the HIV/AIDS Week of Action 2007

PHR organized the 2007 Week of Action in coordination with AMSA, SGAC and University Coalition for Global Health from February 26-March 31.  More than 100 medical schools, public health schools and undergraduate universities participated in film screenings, panel discussions, lectures, petition and postcard campaigns and other awareness and education events focused on achieving universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, care, and support by 2010.  Thirty-five PHR chapters collected 2,000 postcards to support US investment in African health systems and 450 petition signatures to support evidence-based HIV/AIDS treatment for injection drug users.  Students also built connections to PHR's East African Advocacy networks by participating in a inspiring teleconference call with Ugandan students and members of Students for Equity in Health Care (SEHC). Chapters also raised $1,300 in a fundraising drive for SEHC to distribute a groundbreaking  AIDS stigma handbook to all Ugandan health professional students.  The Ugandan medical students had struggled to publish this handbook, which focuses on crippling anti-AIDS stigma among and against the doctors and nurses themselves. PHR's participation meant an important step forward for the African medical students in SEHC.