The annual conference of aidsfocus.ch and terre des hommes schweiz on April 10, 2014 in Bern was dedicated to the topic of “Sexual violence and HIV”. According to the WHO, one in three women worldwide is exposed to physical and/or sexual violence. These assaults have a direct impact on the health of those affected and are one of the main causes of HIV infection.
Irene Bush, Psychosocial Support Service (PSS)
This year’s annual conference of aidsfocus.ch took place in collaboration with terre des hommes schweiz. The aim of the event was to understand the connection between sexual rights, human rights and HIV infections in order to define practical solutions for adequate services for victims of sexual violence.
Broad perspective
Six input presentations were given in the first part of the conference. The internationally active experts provided the more than 40 participants with a differentiated basis for the discussions in the workshops. The fascinating experience reports showed how difficult the working conditions are on the one hand and how much respect the employees of the aid organizations are shown for their work on the other.
Close exchange in the workshops
The exchange in the subsequent workshops confirmed, among other things, that the work affects the employees of contact points very personally, puts a strain on them and they are often also exposed to threats. It is therefore the task of every organization to ensure that its employees are protected (e.g. from attacks by perpetrators) and have the space to address and deal with their psychological stress.
You can download the PDFs from this aidsfocus.ch website
Link to the picture gallery on flickr.com
Here you can find the aidsfocus.ch media release on the conference
Here you can find our live coverage on Twitter (see 10 April)
The speakers were:
