 Message from HEARD's Director, Prof Alan Whiteside I have just three weeks of sabbatical left. It has been good to be in the northern hemisphere through a spring, summer and now an autumn. HEARD's Gender and HIV and AIDS Project Gender and gender inequalities are a central aspect in the transmission of HIV throughout the world, particularly in southern and eastern Africa South African Work-Family Symposium The South African Work-Family Symposium where employers can gauge their own progress on work-family policy against other players in the industry will take place on 30 November in Cape Town. Increasing African Capacity Central to HEARD's Capacity Building agenda, the Young Researchers Initiative (YRI) aims to provide support to young researchers based in eastern and southern Africa to produce high quality, accessible research on HIV/AIDS. At Last, Progress in Developing an AIDS Vaccine According to recent media reports, an experimental HIV vaccine has for the first time cut risk of infection. HEARD's Director, Prof Alan Whiteside was invited by OUPblog to post his views on this recent development which he says this will lead to new investment and energy in the development of vaccines. OUPblog is Oxford University Press' blogosphere for learning, understanding and reflection. A New HEARD Research Agenda on XDR-TB In response to the emergence of drug resistant TB in South Africa, HEARD has set up a research project to explore the reasons for the high levels of hospital transmission of XDR-TB.   | Newsletter Issue 1 October 2009  HEARD's new brand signature is the major visual element of its brand identity and constists of the symbol and logotype. It is clear, dynamic and instantly recognisable. The symbol with three stylised AIDS ribbons was inspired by a paper motif that had been prepared by NGOs in China and obtained at the World AIDS Conference in Bangkok in 2006, and is now framed in HEARD's conference room. That motif contained text which roughly translates into English as "Live and Let Live". The three ribbons also symbolise HEARD's main areas of work namely, Research, African Leadership and Capacity Building. The accentuated 'R' in the logotype 'HEARD' reflects HEARD's core activity which is research. The image of the women forms part of HEARD's brand visuals. Images of African women became an icon in the public media during the 1990s and early 2000s to convey the burden of HIV and AIDS in Africa and, in particular, the burden borne by African women. Subliminally, that imagery also conveyed the stereotype (and statistical reality) that women were most at risk of being infected with the virus. HEARD has reclaimed the icon for a different perspective. The image of a woman reflects our principles of sharing, networking and collaboration. The use of an African image reflects the context of much of HEARD's work. Overall, HEARD acknowledges that in Africa, women usually lead family and community responses to the pandemic. |
