EVALUATION
In December 2006 we teamed up with Panos Caribbean to create AIDS in Two Cities, a photo-analysis of the human impacts of, and community responses to, HIV/AIDS in Port au Prince and Vancouver. Two years later we developed a more ambitious project: the Haiti Exchange. On World AIDS Day, 1 December 2009, this culminated in a public dialogue at Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University (See also Summary Report)
The results of the Haitian Exchange were spectacular. Key outcomes include:
Background Materials
The commonalities lens enabled Haitian and British Columbian nurses to discover that they were tackling similar issues in similar ways, and to learn from each other’s strengths. BC nurses are now examining the Haitian success in expanding the role of nurses in AIDS and TB care.
At the public dialogue, the Haitians revealed plans for using anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) as a means to dramatically reduce new infections as well as to treat HIV-disease. This so impressed Dr Julio Montaner, director of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (CfE), that CfE is now exploring a Haitian-Canadian ARV research project. Panos Canada is working with CfE to develop a global information campaign on the same subject.
Our survey of Vancouver participants showed that 84% ranked the project’s overall success at 7 or more out of 10. As one wrote: “As a paradigm shift away from powerful, technically and intellectually superior North rescuing helpless, resource-poor South, I say a 10/10.”
Survey results - Haitian team
(in French)
Panos Canada is planning more such initiatives. For that, the Haiti Exchange was immensely encouraging. 72% of Vancouver participants ranked their personal satisfaction in the project at 7 or more out of 10. And 65% wanted to be actively involved in follow-up activities.
In your own words...
"I think that this is an amazing concept with so much worth for all involved. I would love to continue to be involved in this process of knowledge-sharing." "The connections made through this exchange made me think about long term collaborations between the organization I work with in Haiti and PLWHA organizations in Haiti. In addition, as I am a medical student in Vancouver, the possibility that there may be continuing collaboration between organizations in Haiti and Vancouver is exciting in terms of future involvement." "An appreciation for the issues we share and the similarities and challenges in our responses to HIV in cities and in rural areas affirmed for me how important it is for the north to lose any feeling we might have that our programs and skills are superior to our southern colleagues. At the same time by comparing our stories it was rewarding to recognize that we had made gains in some areas. This is important at a time when many persons working in the field of HIV in BC sometimes find themselves feeling discouraged that we have not progressed farther."
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