AIDS day awareness conference

Last week saw the second annual Warwick World AIDS Day Conference take place at the University. The conference was organised by Unicef on Campus, and involved various speakers giving presentations on HIV/AIDS in a bid to raise awareness and knowledge among Warwick students.

Key themes included the challenges faced by individuals living with HIV/AIDS, its wider implications on the local community, and new developments in finding a cure. Attendees listened to lectures given by speakers including Dr Angelique Mavrodaris, Academic Clinical Fellow at Warwick Medical School, and Ara Yoo, a Unicef representative. The event culminated in a panel discussion by Izzy John, the Students’ Union Welfare Officer, and Peter Rose, Manager of Warwick Volunteers, on the impact of HIV/AIDS in the local community and the benefits of volunteering.

The conference was held on November 30 to stimulate interest in World AIDS day (which is held on December 1 each year). It followed several other events set up by Unicef on Campus, including a film screening of ‘Philadelphia’ and a debate with the Warwick Debating Society over the issue of prosecuting HIV-positive people who transmit HIV to others.

Dolly Haastrup, a second-year Law student, member of Unicef on Campus and Head Organiser of the event, considered the day to have been a success, saying that it had been “good and very informative.”

She did, however, raise the issue of turnout, which did not seem to exceed twenty people. She said that she did not find the turnout disappointing but did say that it was “lower than expected”.

She also said publicity had been more ambitious this year: “We tried our best to advertise and market it, so it should have been better.”

Vikram Bangara, a second-year Physics student said that he found the talks “really good, there’s been a great development on last year’s talks, a better spectrum [of speakers].I thought it was really improved.”

Whilst acknowledging that “it’s not something that a lot of people might want to go to,” she was pleased that the event was taking place.

Hasstrup said that she hoped “to make it a bit more successful; for the last two years turnout hasn’t been as high as we expected it to be,” and suggested that the society might attempt a new method of celebrating World AIDS day.

Bangara said: “We can’t really compete with all the other conferences on campus.” Overall, however, the conference was deemed to have had a positive outcome, with Bangara adding that “even if only one person came, we’ve done a good job.”