Cairo – March 10th 2010: Ninety Arab activists met in Cairo (1-4/3/2010) from various specialties and expertise (Religious Leaders; Muslims and Christians, Human Rights Activists, NGOs Activists, and Media community members), to discuss what the best ways are to go about reaching out to most vulnerable groups in the Arab States.

The UNDP/HARPAS’ sponsored meeting, which funded by Ford Foundation tackled in depth the challenges that hinder outreach efforts to vulnerable groups. It also aimed at designing a strategic future plan to overcome such challenges to limit the spread of HIV disease and to protect those groups and the societies they live in.

Dr. Khadija; HARPAS Director pointed out that the objective of this meeting is to broaden the debate, and to include more strategic partners and leaders in this initiative for further mobilizing relevant Arab Institutions to provide suitable cultural and legislative environment to support all outreach , prevention and care efforts among vulnerable groups.

Work Groups

In the beginning, Dr Ehab El Kharrat; HARPAS Senior Advisor, went over the agenda and the main objectives of the meeting, then he divided the participants into five groups based on their specialty (Religious Leaders, Behavioral Scientists, Human Rights Organizations, Strategic Communication specialists, and NGOs). The purpose was to allow maximum deep discussions on previous workshops’ outcomes and about the role that each group can play in achieving positive societal advances towards creating strategies for outreach programs to benefit most vulnerable groups in the Arab Region.

Participants expressed their concerns about the rising HIV prevalence rate among members from those vulnerable groups, especially in the midst of a societal and cultural stigma and discrimination against them, and in the absence of second generation surveillances, and studies that can precisely indicate the actual HIV prevalence rate in the Arab Region.

The participants also valued the importance of the religious discourse, and the role that Muslim and Christian Religious Leaders is playing in going forward with vulnerable groups outreach programs in the Arab States. They also emphasized that human rights are wholly and can’t be divided, and that the rights of life, education, work, and treatment must be guaranteed for all human beings including PLWH regardless of infection causes.

Experiences and Testimonies

The workshop included a broad demonstration of experiences in working with vulnerable groups outreach efforts from several participants and representatives of various active organizations from Egypt, Lebanon and Syria.

Number of PLWH and members from different vulnerable groups also gave their life testimonies, and shed the light on the realities they live, in addition to religious leaders who presented their best practices in dealing with these groups and participation in the outreach programs.

Significant Outcomes

One of the most significant outcomes is the participants’ mutual consensus on compiling all researches, studies, and information that were accumulated throughout the entire three technical meetings for documentation and publishing purposes. The participants also demanded that more researches and scientific studies are needed in such area.

The participants also called for the protection of the workers who offer services to vulnerable groups, and for the support of prevention, and treatment efforts to enable vulnerable groups the easy access to such services. They also agreed that cooperation between NGOs and Governmental institutions is important to co-design and implement prevention and rehabilitation programs, and to find proper funds for it.

This gathering is the third in a series of technical meetings, where the first meeting was held in El Ein Al Sokhna, Egypt ( 14-16/12/ 2008), and the second meeting took place in Cairo (1-3/7/2009).