On March 8th, the UCSF Women’s
Global Health Imperative (WGHI) celebrated their 5th
annual International Women’s Day Briefing sponsored by
Wells Fargo and the
Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies. Held in the Green Room
of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center, this
years program focused on the intersections between economics,
gender inequity, and HIV vulnerability among women across the
globe.
To listen to real audio files of the
presentations, please visit the
HIV Insite website.
Dr. Eugene Washington, Vice Chancellor
of UCSF, gave the
welcome address, followed by opening remarks by
Dr. Nancy Padian. Mistress of Ceremonies, Dr. Suellen Miller,
introduced the evenings speakers.
The
keynote address was given by Kathleen Stack, Vice-President
of
Freedom from Hunger. Entitled,
Women Mean Business:
Fighting Poverty and HIV together, Ms. Stack’s presentation
highlighted three different faces of Poverty and HIV/AIDS:
Vulnerability, Victimization, and Victory. Ms. Stack then
discussed one way to move to Victory, the Credit with Education
program developed by Freedom from Hunger, currently serving over
350,000 women world-wide. Ms. Stack gave an overview of the Credit
with Education program and how this strategy is fighting poverty
and HIV together.
Second,
Megan Dunber, Project Director and Co-Investigator of the
SHAZ! Project for WGHI delivered her presentation,
SHAZ!: Girls
Mean Business Too. Ms. Dunbar’s address discussed the SHAZ!
Project, or Shaping the Health of Adolescents in Zimbabwe, which
is a combined economic livelihoods and HIV intervention aimed to
reduce the risk of HIV among adolescent orphan girls in Zimbabwe.
With the completion of the pilot phase, Ms. Dunbar highlighted the
lessons learned and strategies for the upcoming full-scale
intervention.
Third,
Dr. Nancy Padian, Director of WGHI and Associate Director
of the UCSF Global Health Sciences presented,
Who Means
Business? Multi-Sectoral Approaches to Fighting the HIV Pandemic.
Dr. Padian discussed specific components of successful HIV
strategies, and highlighted two countries that have implemented
successful multi-sectoral approaches: Thailand and Uganda. Dr.
Padian also discussed two projects at WGHI, which are using this
multi-sectoral approach: Exploratory Center in Behavioral Economic
Epidemiology and Adolescent Livelihoods Center in India.
The
presentations were followed with a lively question and
answer session moderated by Dr. Suellen Miller. The panel of
speaker fielded a range of questions on micro-credit, HIV/AIDS,
Zimbabwe, and women's health.
Dr.
Nancy Padian and Dean David Kessler presented the
Partnership in Women’s Health Award to Brenda Wright on
Behalf of Wells Fargo, followed
by a dynamic speech by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi. On
behalf of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Supervisor
Mirkarimi presented Nancy Padian and the Women’s Global Health
Imperative with a Certificate of Honor. A reception closed the
evening.