Lecture by Members of the Global HIV/AIDS Solidarity Speaker Tour
BARD HUMAN RIGHTS PROJECT PRESENTS A LECTURE BY MEMBERS OF THE GLOBAL HIV/AIDS SOLIDARITY SPEAKER TOUR ON DECEMBER 4
“Globalization, Gender, and Justice: Ending the Global AIDS Pandemic” Topic of Presentation by Sandra Mubiana Banda, Zambian Activist,
and Matthew Kavanagh, Codirector of Global Justice
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Bard Human Rights Project presents a stop on the Global HIV/AIDS Solidarity Speaker Tour on Tuesday, December 4. Free and open to the public, the lecture by Zambian activist Sandra Mubiana Banda and Matthew Kavanagh, codirector of Global Justice, begins at 7:00 p.m. in room 102 of the F. W. Olin Humanities Building at Bard College. Banda and Kavanagh discuss “Globalization, Gender, and Justice: Ending the Global AIDS Pandemic.”
This presentation is a program of the Student Global AIDS Campaign (SGAC), a national movement with more than 85 chapters at high schools, colleges, and universities across the country committed to bringing an end to AIDS in the United States and around the world through education, informed advocacy, media work, and direct action. SGAC demands sufficient resources, effective prevention, and guaranteed access to AIDS treatment and care as a matter of moral urgency (www.fightglobalaids.org).
Sandra Mubiana Banda, Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ), Lusaka, Zambia, is married with two daughters. She has a diploma in journalism and worked for two local newspapers before joining CIDRZ, where she is the communications coordinator. Banda found out that she was HIV positive in 2004, shortly before joining CIDRZ. She was motivated to take an HIV test while on assignment to make a school video shoot about the launch of free antiretroviral therapy’in Zambia. When Banda joined CIDRZ, she was worried about disclosing her HIV status to her colleagues, but was encouraged to speak openly by her supervisor Ida Mukuka, who often discussed her HIV status. Banda overcame the self-stigma she used to face, and now works closely with people living with HIV/AIDS on various communication efforts including informational, educational, and communication (IEC) materials; drama groups; and radio programs on HIV/AIDS treatment. She also facilitates trainings for support groups on topics such as adherence to ARV medication, stigma and discrimination, behavioral change, and proposal writing.
Matthew Kavanagh is the codirector of Global Justice (www.globaljusticenow.org), an organization dedicated to mobilizing a powerful movement of students and youth in the United States to promote socially and economically just solutions on global HIV/AIDS, trade, and child survival. He is an organizer and educator with a long-time commitment to building a movement for global economic justice. He has been interviewed on AIDS, globalization, and economic justice, in outlets ranging from the Washington Post to the BBC to Al Jazeera. Before coming to Global Justice, Kavanagh worked with a wide variety of NGOs and social-movement organizations, most recently in South Africa, where he worked on water rights and apartheid reparations campaigns. In the United States, he directed a national legal- and human rights-education program at Street Law and worked as a community organizer with the Boston Youth Organizing Project. He has organized for people-focused international development and trade policies with groups including the Mobilization for Global Justice, and coordinated health, civic engagement, and environmental education programs in Massachusetts, New York, Guatemala, and Namibia. As the national coordinator of the Student Global AIDS Campaign (SGAC) at Global Justice, Kavanagh previously coordinated a nationwide network of youth AIDS activists and guided SGAC’s treatment access campaign focused on international trade and pharmaceutical company policies. He has written for the Huffington Post, Z Magazine, Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, and other publications, as well as curricula for young people on issues ranging from U.S. family law to the economic roots of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. He holds a bachelor’s degree in comparative politics from Vassar College and a master’s degree in community education and organizing from Harvard University. A Red Hook native, Kavanagh now lives in Washington, D.C.
For further information, call 845-758-7110 or e-mail [email protected].
# # #
(11/28/07)
To download high-resolution press photos (300 dpi jpegs), click on thumbnail images below:
 |
 |
 |
Matthew Kavanagh, codirector of Global Justice |
Sandra Mubiana Banda, Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ) |