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This year's World AIDS Campaign posters, with the strap line "Have you heard me today?" explore how gender inequality fuels the AIDS epidemic.

World AIDS Day 2004 continues to build on the theme of HIV and AIDS-related stigma and discrimination, with a specific focus on women and girls. The posters end with the strong message: "Equality for women helps fight AIDS".

Posters will be available from Geneva in English, French, Spanish and Russian. Blank templates of images and text will also be available for local adaptation, following requests from previous years.

You may direct any World AIDS Day enquiries to the website pages, or or to +41-22-197-1027.

Copies of this year's posters and other campaign support materials are now online at: www.unaids.org.

An international conference on HIV/AIDS, Food and Nutrition Security will be held in Durban, South Africa, from 14 - 16 April 2005. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is organising the event and hopes to stimulate more effective, large-scale action that addresses the links between HIV/AIDS and food and nutrition insecurity.

Prior to this conference, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and partners will be holding a Technical Consultation on Nutrition and HIV/AIDS in Africa at the same venue. The two conferences are complementary in their scope and organisers are working together to maximise synergies. The conference will provide a forum for scholars and practitioners to share and present research and operational experience.

Interested researchers and practitioners are invited to submit abstracts.

For more information:
Stuart Gillespie, IFPRI ()

The United Nations is sponsoring an award for journalists covering the HIV/AIDS pandemic in East and Southern Africa.

UNESCO launched the Red Ribbon Media Award for Reporting Excellence in 2002 to encourage journalists to adopt proactive and innovative ways of reporting on HIV/AIDS. It was designed not only to improve media coverage, but also to create awareness and fight the stigma affecting HIV-positive people.

The competition is open to journalists from Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Somalia, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Six awards will be handed out in three categories: radio, television and print/online. Winners will receive a cash prize and a certificate at a ceremony this November in Nairobi, Kenya.

Submitted works must have been published or broadcast between 16 November 2003 and 29 October 2004. All entries should be sent by 29 October to:
Media and HIV/AIDS Network
P.O. Box 1038 Village Market, Nairobi, Kenya
Fax: +(254-20) 522182.

For more information: www.aids-africa.org