Well its Carnival time in the Caribbean once again and with it starts all of the bacchanal and drama that goes along with it. In Trinidad there are numerous in-community events and parties. We are especially thrilled to see that Bohemia’s doors are open from the Carnival Sunday night - Joovay; Monday night - Scandalous and Tuesday night - Last Lap. They also have one of the nicest invitation’s artwork for the season. Big-ups to its graphic artist!
Also happy that Rainbow Inc. are hosting their annual Carnival Friday Night all inclusive bash. As many of you know, this was the original Carnival weekend party and persons from all over our planet book flights in advance just to be there. Click here to view all of the forthcoming events.
As always, we encourage each of you to ‘HAVE FUN & PLAY SAFER’. There’s no excuse to take risks as once again organisations like Friends for Life and MSMNPA have lots of Condoms for distribution.
MSMNPA is please to announce that we have gained new partnerships as part of our Community Intervention Projects, which means a fair amount of HIV/AIDS initiatives targeting MSM communities throughout this year. We have started with our existing link with events promoter D’Sistahood in which we will work together to conduct four community events. MSMNPA and S Concept’s Condom Crew will also be at their Carnival fete “CHROME”, to provide a thorough Safer Sex campaign with all kinds of educational and promotional materials, graphic slide shows and condoms, condoms….and more condoms. We would especially like to thank the International HIV/AIDS Alliance - Caribbean Regional Home Office and USAID for being so generous and increasing our annual unbranded condom allocations.
As part of our ongoing prevention strategies, we have also maintained condom dissemination partnerships with the Port of Spain General Hospital - Ward 1 and the University of the West Indies’ Health Service Unit (HSU) under Dr. Neil Singh. In addition, by our existing partnership with the Lutheran US - Caribbean Twinning Initiative, we assisted in the coordination of providing seven hundred rapid test kits to the HSU for a Carnival Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) Initiative targeting the student body at the University.
This week, Mobafa Baker of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies selected MSMNPA as its Trinidad partner, to launch their Faces Campaign as well as to provide promotional materials to be used at our community projects, support groups and in our newsletter and website.
Lastly, whew….. the National AIDS Coordinating Committee (NACC) of Trinidad & Tobago has increased its interest in targeting vulnerable populations as part of our National Strategic Plan 2004 - 2008, and have generously offered to assist and strengthen our community projects and conduct its first Safer Sex - Training Trainers Workshop specifically for the Gay, Lesbian, Transgendered and Persons who sell sex communities, coordinated and facilitated by yours truly. Many thanks to all their dedicated and hard working and committed staff, you all know who you are.
Best Regards,
You can stop AIDS! Make your Promise in 2006
Dennis James - DENI
Project Director
MSM: No Political Agenda - MSMNPA
Lot 3A Gittensdale. La Horquette Valley Road. Glencoe
Trinidad & Tobago
Tel: 1 (868) 694 1530 / 685 0555
Fax: 1 (868) 694 1531
Email: office@msmnpa.org; office@msmnpa.org
Website: www.msmnpa.org
