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Pangaea 2001 – 2017
A hallmark of Pangaea has been our ability to respond nimbly and evolve in response to the changing nature of the global AIDS epidemic.
Such a time is upon us again.
With dramatic changes in the funding landscape for global health - and HIV particularly - as well as the growing consolidation of organizations with similar values and missions, the Board of Pangaea and I have taken a hard look at how best our mission can be delivered.
We have concluded it is time for Pangaea to wind down as an independent organization, and for our Oakland office to close.
Our Zimbabwe office will continue as an independent Zimbabwean Trust, and we are working with partners now to ensure the vitality and sustainability of its important work. We are also finalizing agreements with partners to take over our technical assistance in Laos and China.
These moves are fully aligned with our deeply held commitment to foster long term program sustainability and ownership by our country partners. Our policy and advocacy live on in the commitment of organizations and individuals around the world who are dedicated to building robust and effective AIDS responses with and for those communities most affected by the virus.
Pangaea came into existence because of the extraordinary commitment of the citizens of the Bay Area to support people around the world defeat this epidemic. In our early years, we helped establish the Infectious Diseases Institute in Kampala, Uganda and assisted South Africa, Rwanda, China and Ukraine set up HIV treatment programs. We then expanded our work to make available more broadly high quality HIV treatment to people living in resource constrained settings, to expand PrEP to adolescent girls and young women in Zimbabwe, and to men of color who have s*x with men in Oakland, and in our collaboration in China to strengthen HIV services for gay men and people who inject drugs, as well as translating the experience of Chinese HIV community leadership to breast cancer awareness.
I am deeply grateful for the leadership and contributions of all of our staff, consultants and Board, whose commitment to our mission has been unwavering.
But above all, everyone at Pangaea is deeply grateful to you for your support over the years, without which none of this could have been possible.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at
[email protected].
With deepest thanks and warmest regards,
Ben Plumley
It's December the 1st: this year more than ever, the fight against AIDS demands a serious, fully- funded and long term commitment to end the virus that causes AIDS: HIV.
Pangaea and local Oakland partners CalPEP and WORLD host an event to tell the untold stories of what the fight against HIV looks like over the 30 years away from the spotlight of big cities and big promises.
And with over 25 partners around the world, we reclaim December the 1st as World HIV Day, because "An AIDS Free Generation" is not enough.
What are your stories in the fight against HIV?
www.worldhivday.org
December 1st 2016: Join us in Oakland California, as we reclaim this day as World HIV Day to
- call for a fully funded response to HIV that respects and invests in the populations most affected by the virus: girls and women, people of color, men who have s*x with men, people who inject drugs, s*x workers and incarcerated populations.
- celebrate the long, personal commitment made by front line workers here and around the world
The World is changing profoundly - and our response to HIV must change too.
Rapid, effective, accessible diagnostics are essential to quality HIV treatment: Specimen Hub Transport Systems have a big role to play! Join us on Dec.6 in during to find out ,
http://aslm2016.org/seminar-30a/ .
Pangaea Statement on the Results of the US Elections
On November 8th 2016, a new President and Congress were elected in the USA. As the new Administration defines its priorities in the global and domestic HIV response, we consider it crucial to reaffirm the fundamental principles of an effective response to HIV, for which overwhelming evidence has been generated over the last 35 years of this epidemic:
- delivering evidence-driven strategies; that provide access to treatment for all people living with HIV, HIV testing and comprehensive prevention strategies that include PrEP and condom availability, and harm reduction strategies for people who inject drugs that include needle exchange and op**te substitution therapy
- engaging and respecting the rights and dignity of all populations affected by HIV; particularly girls and young women, people of color, men who have s*x with men, trans men and women, people who inject drugs, s*x workers and incarcerated populations.
We strongly urge the Administration and Congress to continue, and indeed deepen, the the investment of the US in HIV, rooted in these principles. These principles will drive Pangaea's work with the US Government over the next four years. We will intensify our commitment to mobilize new partners from the corporate and philanthropic sectors - so that evidence and rights- based approaches to HIV are supported and implemented as broadly as possible. And we will come together with reproductive and s*xual health, human rights, immigration and climate change advocates to forge alliances and maximize our collective impact.
We may be entering a new political era, but the challenges presented by HIV are as great today as they were in 2001 when the US came together to launch PEPFAR.
On behalf of a large and growing group of civil society groups, scientists, healthcare workers politicians and policy makers, I had the honor to announce at the penultimate session at. AIDS2016 that we are collaborating to
pool existing evidence and rights based comprehensive strategies into a new, ambitious, and evidence and human rights based Global Plan to end HIV within our lifetimes.
Why are we doing this? We regret that neither June's High Level Political Declaration nor the UN's revised downwards investment estimates didn't come close to recognizing the enormity of the long term prevention, testing, stigma, treatment and research needs we urgently face. In fact the complacency they engender, threaten the progress we have made to date.
We are therefore today launching a new inclusive and multisectoral coalition to collate existing peer-reviewed and respected strategies, such as the Lancet UNAIDS Comission Report, Civil Society's own response to the tepid final High Level Political Declaration and other evidence and rights based strategies.
This informal coalition will commence work immediately
We will host a meeting at the end of September to which all are welcome, which will highlight the proven interventions and strategies that should form part of the comprehensive plan. We will also be inviting champions in their various fields to facilitate the development of existing and new interventions as well as identifying well respected and transparent forecasting models and their assumptions.
Finally we will launch the Global Plan on World AIDS Day - December 1st 2016 - in a unprecedented global social media blitz around the world reminding every citizen that AIDS is Not Over and that there are things they can do to protect themselves, and support their brothers, sisters, neighbors and friends living with HIV. That this is not something we can leave only to our governmental representatives.
The plan will be regularly updated and reviewed at events and conferences in our routine AIDS calendar.
This cannot be the lone responsibility of governments and their international agencies, Now is the time for all of us to work collectively to ensure that our response is driven by proven interventions, human rights, and accurate data. Not political compromise.
This is OUR epidemic. It is OUR responsibility to end it.
Civil society, scientists, policy makers, and funders announced in Durban today at that they will pool existing evidence and rights based comprehensive strategies into a new, ambitious, and evidence and human rights based Global Plan to end within our lifetimes.
Why are we doing this? We regret that neither June's High Level Political Declaration nor the UN's revised downwards investment estimates didn't come close to recognizing the enormity of the long term prevention, testing, stigma, treatment and research needs we urgently face. In fact the complacency they engender, threaten the progress we have made to date.
We are therefore today launching a new inclusive and multisectoral coalition to collage existing peer-reviewed and respected strategies, such as the Lancet UNAIDS Commission Report, Civil Society's own response to the tepid final High Level Political Declaration, and other evidence and rights based strategies.
This informal coalition will commence work immediately.
We will host a meeting at the end of September to which all are welcome, which will highlight the proven interventions and strategies that should form part of the comprehensive plan. We will also be inviting champions in their various fields to facilitate the development of existing and new interventions and well respected and transparent forecasting models and their assumptions.
Finally we will launch the Global Plan on World AIDS Day - December 1st 2016 - in a unprecedented global social media blitz around the world reminding every citizen that is Not Over and that there are things they can do to protect themselves, and support their brothers, sisters, neighbors, and friends living with HIV. That this is not something we can leave only to our governmental representatives.
The plan will be regularly updated and reviewed at events and conferences in our routine AIDS calendar.
This cannot be the lone responsibility of governments and their international agencies, Now is the time for all of us to work collectively to ensure that our response is driven by proven interventions, human rights, and accurate data. Not political compromise.
This is OUR epidemic. It is OUR responsibility to end it.
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