Program on AIDS to be held

Current research being done by the UCLA AIDS Institute to
address the problem of AIDS in Africa will be presented at a
symposium today in Kaufman Hall.

The program will consist of three panel discussions, dance
performances, films and keynote speaker Stephen Lewis, U.N. special
envoy of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Panelist members will include experts
on the spread and prevention of HIV/AIDS from around the world,
including the former vice president of Uganda, Speciaosa Wandira
Kazibwe.

“As you can see we’ve made an effort to not just
talk about Africa, but have people from Africa talk about
Africa,” said Dr. Thomas Coates, one of four co-chairs of the
event. “There are people here that we’ve brought from
Africa who will take this information back with them and apply
it.”

Coates, the person who developed the idea for the symposium,
also said, “The whole mission of this is really to highlight
the solutions in HIV prevention and care by bringing together
public health, medicine, arts and media.”

The symposium will highlight current research being done by
faculty at both UCLA and the Charles R. Drew University of Los
Angeles to address the prevention, spread and cure of AIDS within
Africa.

“We’d like to make the UCLA community aware of some
of the research that is ongoing in Africa involving faculty, and
associates of both universities. Our goals are to present what
research is being done, to network, to interest donors to help us
establish a formal collaboration between groups at UCLA that are
interested in addressing the problem, and to integrate art and
music,” said Dr. Gail Wyatt, co-chair of the event and
professor in residence at UCLA.

“We don’t want to perpetuate the pattern of
uninvolvement that the American government has taken. We would like
to take action now,” she added.

The incorporation of arts and music as a communicative aspect to
stemming the tide of AIDS will be an important aspect of the
symposium, which will include a dance performances by UCLA PhD
Candidate, Peter Carpenter, and Idi Saaka, UCLA MFA Candidate, and
the presentation of a visual arts gallery and the film,
“Vulnerability to AIDS, TB, and Malaria: The Role of
Poverty.”

“I wanted to make a case for the role of artists in
stopping AIDS. Artists are excellent communicators through film,
dances and theaters,” said David Gere, associate professor of
World Arts and Culture and co-chair of the symposium.

“We are committed to building partnerships in Africa. Our
idea is to create a network so people across disciplines can tackle
the problem,” said Dr. Irvin Chen, director of the UCLA AIDS
Institute. “We are very committed to translational studies
and cross-disciplinary programs. We have people doing
epidemiological care, behavioral research and people turning art
into preventional messages.”

Chen added that the institute planned on presenting the AIDS in
Africa symposium annually, and adding AIDS in India and AIDS in
Asia programs in the future.

“Ten thousand people die every 10 days from AIDS,”
Chen said. “The viral waves that are sweeping across Africa
and Asia are invisible and work over decades.”