The India Network for Sexual Minorities (INFOSEM) meeting

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

The India Network for Sexual Minorities (INFOSEM) is the resulting

seed planted by people who have a track record of community work and

over a period of time envisaged it becoming a national network for

providing health services to the LGBT community in India. A

resolution that was passed unanimously at the Millennium conference

has sprung into an umbrella of more than 22 organizations across

India in 2004.

The Humsafar Trust convened the first INFOSEM conference and training

workshop from the 11th to the 14th of August 2004 at Hotel Royal

Garden, Juhu in Mumbai. The INFOSEM meet was attended by 68 delegates

representing groups that came from as far away as Imphal in Manipur

state (north east India), West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka,

Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Pune and two groups from

Mumbai apart from the HST team of volunteers.

It was touching to see that the group SASO from Imphal braved curfew

in their state. landslides and traveled five days to make to the meet

in Mumbai.

The INFOSEM governing council was elected on the first day. It was

decided that the board of INFOSEM would comprise of one MSM group, a

Lesbian group and a Transgender group representative from four

regions ( East / West / North and South India ) that would make 12

members on the board and Humsafar Trust as convener of INFOSEM

becomes the 13th member on the board.

The following three days concentrated on building capacity of member

organizations sharing its ten years of learning. The sessions were

carefully planned keeping in mind the needs assessment reports send

by the members.

The sessions trained all attending delegates on setting up of LGBT

groups, getting them registered, writing proposals, seeking funds,

setting up programs, designs of community work, advocacy and

networking models, outreach programs, setting up VCCTCs, STI

treatment, care and support models for HIV positive and tools and

systems for managing programs effectively. It was encouraging that

every delegate present at the training workshop attended all sessions.

The last day saw a presentation made by KK Abraham( President, INP+)

on how coalitions could be build for access to treatment.

Each day, parallel sessions on women's issues were organised that

included mental health, sexual health, skills building, safe spaces

and empowerment of the Lesbian women. Women and men attending the

INFOSEM meet attended these sessions.

The HST planned a visit for all representatives of the 22 groups

present at the meet to the HST center in different groups on the

first and second day of the meet and gave an overview about HST

functioning.

The last evening saw a heated panel workshop where four leaders of

the LGBT community were grilled by delegates and guests on the

progress of the LGBT movement in India in the last one decade.

Incidentally, HST had organized India's first ever gay conference in

1994 and ten years later HST again organized India's first INFOSEM

meet in Mumbai

The training workshop came to an end with a farewell dinner complete

with drag, dance,music and dinner for all participants. The HST drag

group performed an hour long drag show as a tribute to the dancing

diva's of Indian screen. It was a night that we (and the hotel

employees and guests!) will always remember, cause it marked ten

years of HST.

It was also a heart wrenching moment for us as Vrushali Deshmukh our

head counsellor left us to pursue her further studies at Columbia

University in USA. It was time to say good bye to a young woman who

has created a niche for herself by providing pretest / post test

counselling to over 6500 MSM in the last five years. It was time say

good bye to a young woman who accepted and became part of the MSM

community with no conditions attached and we will miss her till she

decides to return to her family at HST.

Some new members who joined hands are Snyegitham (Trichurapalli),

SASO (Imphal), Population Services International (associate member-

Mumbai), INP+(associate members-Chennai )

The four day meet was facilitated by 22 speakers and most of them

belonged to the LGBT community and ample experience working at grass

root levels. It was a meet of the LGBT community, for and by the LGBT

community.

There is something more important than believing: Action!

The world is full of dreamers, there aren't enough who will move

ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision, but

today we have gone ahead and paved the way ahead!

This training workshop which was an initiative of HST and was made

possible with support from FHI-USAID. MDACS, IAVI.

The farewell Dinner was sponsored by DKT India and Population

Services International (PSI)

Regards,

Ernest.

Advocacy officer

Humsafar Trust

____________________

Message forwarded by

ASHOK ROWKAVI

E-mail: <arowkavi@...>