International AIDS Candlelight Memorial

The Global Health Council is the world's largest membership alliance dedicated to saving lives by improving health throughout the world.

The Council works to ensure that all who strive for improvement and equity in global health have the information and resources they need to succeed.

Strategies

Integrating Advocacy

The Candlelight Memorial can have an important role in shaping local or national AIDS policy. The event can help political leaders better understand the impact AIDS and related diseases can have on a community, and motivate them to improve policies and systems that can affect the lives of millions. This can be done through advocacy, which means promoting or supporting a specific cause or issue. An advocacy message is a statement or position reflecting the needs of a community, and often targets political leaders with power to change local or national AIDS policies, such as presidents or ministers of health. As you plan your memorial, decide which advocacy messages to announce or integrate into the activities. Below are some tips for integrating advocacy messages into your memorial.

Integrating Advocacy

Sample messages to leave with political leaders through your memorial:

Expand and improve health systems that serve patients with HIV/AIDS and related diseases;
Address AIDS as a national or community problem;
Increase funding for national HIV/AIDS prevention and education programs;
Increase the number of health-care facilities for treating HIV/AIDS;
Hire more and better trained community health workers, like nurses or doctors;
Increase attention to related diseases, such as tuberculosis and malaria;
Increase choices for contraception techniques, like condoms or microbicides;
Increase support and access to HIV testing and voluntary counseling;
Lower the cost for expensive medicines to treat HIV/AIDS, such as antiretroviral drugs;
Recognize social stigma and discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS;
Demand HIV-positive persons have equal human rights that deserve to be respected;
Allow and support more research for an HIV/AIDS vaccine;
Urge political delegations to attend international AIDS conferences and meetings.

Ways to integrate messages into your memorial:

Invite political leaders, ministers of health, and leaders of important organizations to attend or speak at your memorial. Their participation will help your event get publicity and spread the word by educating them to the problems of AIDS in your community. Give them “talking points” or written notes ahead of time summarizing what you would like them to say. Suggest that they use this occasion to announce their own initiatives for HIV/AIDS;
Partner with other organizations that work in AIDS and invite them to set up booths to display information about their work as it relates to your advocacy goals;
Write a brief resolution based on your advocacy messages and have participants at your memorial sign the resolution. Deliver the resolution to the ministry of health for action;
Include your messages in your promotional materials, such as fliers or posters.

< Choosing Activities | Promoting the Event >