by Nigel Marsh - Hope Communications

BARCELONA, July 11, 2002

Ken Casey
It's been encouraging to me - when you line up people of the caliber of Peter Piot, Dr Richard Feachem, Anne Peterson, Carole Bellamy and Gro Harlem Bruntland, and you listen to the commitment and passion that comes out of those folks on the issue of HIV/AIDS, that's very heartening. I'm encouraged by the growing international commitment that I've heard here.

We've all done a lot of networking. One tangible result of that is that we have been able to make a plan to involve World Vision with the Strategies For Hope series of books, and we're going to work on developing a toolkit for churches with Gideon Byamugisha, Christo Greyling, and several other poeple outside World Vision. I think that will lead to something very useful.

We met with some excellent people from Johns Hopkins University who are working in 14 countries with programs designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of abstinence and faithfulness in reducing HIV transmission, and they are keen to work with faith communities to promote this. And, of course, we've been able to spend time with a lot of key players in funding programmes, like the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria.

Milton Amayun, Ray Martin and I have talked a lot about how we can get the message on abstinence and faithfulness mainstreamed. We've talked about getting top academics like Ted Green from Harvard, the people from Johns Hopkins and others, to discuss ways to research, document and promote this.

Marwin Meier
Networking for me is of first importance at a conference like this. It's a meeting of like-minded people who are just as passionate as I am - that has been very encouraging. You find yourself with people who are putting every fibre of their innovation and passion into combating HIV/AIDS. They are very open for future communication and working together.

There's an egalitarian openness and spirit here. I walked up to Richard Feachem, director of the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria, and he was really open and gave me time. I appreciate that. The same was for Judge Cameron, a judge at the constitutional court. He wasn't just polite, he really listened. The approachability of people here is really great. Maybe because it's a microcosm, a subject on which we are all working; these people don't just do it for the money, they are here with their hearts.

Milton Amayun
This event has reminded me once again of the global reach of the epidemic and the magnitude of the consequencess that have accumulated over the years, touching individual lives, communities, and the world as a whole. It also reminds me how much needs to be done.

The growing problem needs to be met with increased, attention; a scaled-up response at personal, organizational, national and international levels.

I've had quite a bit of networking success in Barcelona, making links with many organizations from all corners of the globe, especially the faith-based ones. And for the first time I met one person from St Pierre and Miquelon - now that's a country that few people have heard of, and it's interesting to see that they consider the threat serious enough to send a representative.

Christo Greyling
I've been touched right from the start, when everyone was together at the opening ceremony and we all lit a candle. Seeing the swarm of candles, my mind started to swarm too, with the images of the faces of people I personally know who have died. We are not here just for statistics, but because of real people and real pain. My prayer at that moment was, God, this must never become just a job.

Previously with my work I was focused on youth and prevention. Now it is important for me to get as wide as possible input on a whole ranger of subjects. I've been like a hungry sponge here and tried to get as much as possible. My days would start at the plenary session at 8am and end at 10 at night. It's been an adrenalin rush.

Networking has been great - I've been finding so many people I already know who are making a difference, but also meeting people in different areas who World Vision can meet with and with whom we can become better and more effective partners.

I've been doing a lot of media interviews on the telephone this week, with South African broadcasters but also with radio, television and print journalists from the United States. And I had the opportunity to do some media training for the Global Network of Positive People, too, which is a good way to make relationships with them.

Nigel Marsh
It's been a hectic week, a mad rush. There are upwards of 200 journalists registered at the conference, with anything up to 2000 for some of the key events. Many of these are Spanish, but there are people from all over Europe, the US, Japan and China, everywhere. I've been able to talk to quite a few (I've now lost my voice!), organize interviews for team members, get information about World Vision to them, and widely distribute leaflets, magazines, our flashy interactive CD ROMs, specialists' guides and so on. Because of a hitch with the courier company most of these items didn't arrive until the last day, but while the timing was off, at least these guys will remember us. Some of the journalists here have a personal commitment to the cause, and I expect we will encounter them again in various places.