October 1-3, 2007
 
CESLA's Executive Director, Dr. Terrry J.Hutter, was an invited guest to the "speakers gallery" of the GHAA conference, held in Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa.

The GHAA Conference was a collaboration of higher education institutions and organizations from different parts of the world in an effort to champion the prevention of HIV/AIDS as well as the spread of related social ills.

This gathering was an interactive forum to promote sharing of expertise across the globe. Countries attending also benefited by exploring best-practice models. Professionals in partnership with the community advocates explored possible areas related to qualitative and quantitative research.

This conference was attended by over 300 delegates from the USA, Cameroon, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Zambia, Mozambique, China, South Korea, Thailand and India. The South African Minister of Health and other prominent speakers addressed the delegates at this international event.

GHAA’s Strategic Goals

Goal 1:
To nurture and develop a broad-spectrum, cross-cultural, economically and socially diverse global partnership united by common goals, including health advocacy groups, professional organizations, civil society, faith-based communities, industry and corporate sponsors, community-based organizations and educational institutions.

Goal 2:
To establish an educational component that incorporates in-reach and outreach awareness and prevention campaigns, drawing upon lessons learned and knowledge gained through on-going research activities to substantially reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS among vulnerable populations

Goal 3:
To support and facilitate national and global advocacy campaigns that engage in and foster public analyses and formulation concerning those specific issues that bear upon the disproportionate impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic upon vulnerable populations

Goal 4:
To strengthen the capacity of institutions of higher learning that serve vulnerable groups by building upon present assets to expand research capacities through the establishment of the:
• Bench-to-bedside research network that facilitates shared resources across preventive, clinical and biomedical research centers dedicated to championing the struggles of vulnerable populations in their fight against HIV/AIDS;
• GLOBAL-WORLD HIV/AIDS Socio-behavioral, Biomedical Informatics GRID (GHAASBIG) that will develop and manage operational templates for each of the three major Network platforms: socio-cultural, educational, clinical, and biomedical, providing a coordinated clinical data management system for data collection, storage, exchange and analyses; and a
• Multi-center research program that facilitates the conduct of multi-center studies and encourages innovative approaches to the basic mechanisms of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of HIV/AIDS in vulnerable populations.

GHAA's Mission
Charting Healthy Pathways aims to strengthen the capacity of institutions of higher learning that serve historically marginalized groups by:
• building upon present assets to expand research capacities.
• nurturing and developing a abroad-spectrum, cross cultural, economically and socially diverse global partnership.
• establishing an education component that incorporates in-reach and outreach awareness and prevention campaigns and supporting
• and facilitating a national and global advocacy campaigns that engage in and foster public analyses and formulation concerning those specific issues that bear upon the disproportionate and impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic upon historically marginalized populations.

DOWNLOAD
Click the title directly above to download a .pdf file of the October 1-3, 2007 conference program.

GHAA website
Click the title directly above to go the GHAA website at Jackson State University, and find additional information on the October 1-3, 2007 conference in Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa