Category: International
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It’s been a busy week in many ways. However, underpinning every activity is preparing for the ever-present humidity of over 90% and the occasional dump of what seems like half the Indian ocean in a couple of hours. Now, this is where the umbrella performs its second important function, which is to protect its handler…
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Much as I was getting into the swing of blogging, a trip home gave me a legitimate excuse not to put fingers to keyboard: reading about my life-enhancing experiences with a first world existence of Cornish holiday treats with the family would not quicken the pulse of many. As an antidote to this Hedonistic home…
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[slideshow_deploy id=”2935″] Gary Rubin, our Canadian Saving Lives Advisor, was a close colleague of Professor Wainberg, the renowned HIV researcher who passed away a little earlier this year. In this post, Gary remembers Mark – both professionally and personally. Mark Wainberg was born in Montreal and studied science as an undergraduate at McGill University, and then…
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Not exactly a Tour-de-France peloton, but the number and permutations of the one-gear bikes, with rickshaws, side-cars, and front and back carriers, is one of the features of Yangon. The helmeted Lycra-clad version we see bombing around the streets of urban UK would not withstand the obstacles here. The roads require nothing less than the…
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So week 4 is nearly underway. Of course, anyone reading this may think I’m off my trolley working in such a challenging environment at such an advanced age when I should be sipping a mature Chateauneuf du Pape, doing the Times crossword (which I can’t do anyway), and thinking about what time the cricket starts…
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Let me tell you about MAM now, the organisation I’m responsible to. They could sort out the NHS with their energy and imagination. The picture above shows you where the current clinics are and there are new clinics for IVDU and in areas in Myanmar where limited or no services are available being built/developed and…
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So, my ‘go-to’ place where there is air-conditioning is the famous Myanmar Plaza. That’s where the internet access is and you can even get a flat-white. For a bit of ‘back-home’ if needed this is the place to be. Back to the clinic and an important topic, food! All the clinic staff eat enormous amounts…
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In a bus station sweating profusely, drinking excellent Myanmar beer having survived the first week, eaten every local street food that looks edible and suffered the consequences and now about to start on a 10-hour overnight bus journey to Bagan, home of the temples (picture). Now I have been and worked in many places but…
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Saving Lives has been promoting HIV testing in the gay and black communities in its native Birmingham, and reaching out to football clubs across the country to communicate a simple message: HIV testing saves lives, and stigma kills. “The later a person’s HIV is diagnosed, the worse their health can become,” says Dr Steve Taylor,…
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Saving Lives exists to combat social stigmas of all sorts, and this includes hate of any kind. That’s why we’re supporting the #StopTheHate campaign. The open safety pin has become a symbol of people’s resistance to a worrying and apparently rising trend for xenophobic and racist behaviours in the week or so since the UK…