Two HIV/AIDS support organisations are working towards a Memorandum of Understanding that will see them enter a new era of collaboration.

Body Positive and the New Zealand AIDS Foundation (NZAF) are pledging to work together in the future as a united front against the pandemic. Hannah JV met with Body Positive CEO Bruce Kilmister and NZAF executive director Shaun Robinson to discuss what the future holds.

“There are a lot of misconceptions out there about the relationship Body Positive has with NZAF,” says Bruce Kilmister. The most recent example of this is The Wellness Fund, which has been handed over from the NZAF to the National Collective of People Living with HIV. The fund was handed over with $8000 in the bank account, along with the promise that NZAF and Body Positive would be working together to collect funds for World AIDS Day.

Traditionally, the net amount of monies raised by World AIDS Day went to The Wellness Fund. Under a new agreement reached this year, it was agreed that 50 per cent of the fundraised money go to The Wellness Fund, and 50 per cent go to NZAF for the purposes of HIV prevention.

Back in July, it was confirmed that the NZAF had initially planned to keep 100 per cent of the street appeal’s proceeds for prevention initiatives. After positive peoples’ groups protested, a 25 per cent cut was tabled; Kilmister expressed outrage at the suggestion. Times have changed since then, however.

“The decision was reached after a great deal of negotiation,” says Kilmister. “It would have been better if the outcome had been reached between us and then announced, but unfortunately, things
leapfrogged back into history and a lot of bloodletting and negotiation was discussed. The reality is that we have a very good agreement with the NZAF that involves both organisations moving forward
with the relevant investment in the World AIDS Day street collection and The Wellness Fund.”

NZAF’s Shaun Robinson says, “I think discussions over things like The Wellness Fund involve learning how to cooperate. Even though we have a bigger slice of the funding, we’ve built a significant operation over 25 years and our funding is going backwards not forwards; we have a $250,000 hole in our budget. We do have a need to raise funds to help support our care of positive people as well, so as a really solid symbol of collaboration, we’re raising the money together and splitting the money 50/50.”

The two organisations also pledge to work together on the matter of testing. Kilmister says, “There needs to be a national discussion on testing in this country. That not only includes Body Positive, the NZAF, Sexual Health, Blood Services and GPs. I think we are overdue for that because there needs to be a national standard and national consistency and we’re keen to have that discussion. At the moment, testing is an essential ingredient in the way forward to identify people living with HIV. The only organisations that do rapid testing is the NZAF and Body Positive, and that is, in a single word, appalling.”

So what has caused the two organisations to work towards collaboration? Kilmister jokes that “the alignment of the planets” played a part, but also says Robinson coming on board “provides a fresh opportunity for us to look at collaboration”.

Robinson says, “There’s also been momentum this year – there has been our participation in the treatment event Bruce facilitated, there’s been the Positive Speakers Bureau and there’s been a reenergising of the HIV Forum – Bruce and I have shared a lot of drive on that and the whole national strategy focus. In the past we have collaborated, but we haven’t seen so many tangibles coming so quickly together.”

Kilmister says, “If there’s one thing we’ve seen in the last 30 years, it’s been a sea of change that both NZAF and Body Positive have risen to in terms of challenges. I feel we can do better than we already are by working collectively. This year we’ve seen a number of milestones come quickly, which puts us in good stead for the few remaining challenges.”

One of these remaining challenges is the management of Collective Thinking, the positive community’s own magazine that was handed by positive people to the NZAF some years ago to look after. Production of the magazine was halted in April 2010, when express revealed that the NZAF was putting a tender for development of a new website out to the public.

Kilmister says, “The magazine was once effectively managed by positive people but through lack of funding, support and resource, it was asked if the NZAF could manage it. Now that Body Positive is in a better position, we’re asking for it back, but it’s not as simple as that; a number of years have gone by. I’m quite confident we can resolve the difference to our mutual satisfaction and it comes down to the collaboration – re-energising a sense of mutual responsibility, mutual work, mutual respect and trust.”

“I support the principle but what we need to do is to work out the practicality,” says Robinson. “Having managed it for a number of years, we need to figure out how to develop the next phase of Collective Thinking. “Give it six months – I don’t think it will happen in five minutes, but we’ll get there.”

Kilmister says when it comes to the overall picture, the collaborative future between the two organisations is bright. “Shaun is a fresh pair of eyes that can look at the relationship dispassionately – we welcome that because there’s no inflection on history. He’s been able to come out and say what he thinks both organisations should do and we’ve listened and decided to develop a better collaboration
between the two organisations. We’re keen to pursue this because the reality of this is that both organisations don’t have enough resources to waste on duplication or unnecessary double work.

“By understanding each others’ roles we can get to the stage where we are working in the best way we can to support the positive community and help prevent the spread of HIV.”

| Hannah JV