Irish AIDS activism : from Blossin to Drierbergen and beyond

Part of PIAA’s interest in European-level work stems from on its early focus on mobility between two European countries, Ireland and Britain, as well as early collaborative research with the Anglo-Italian Drug & HIV Network. PIAA was also one of the first ethnic minority groups to obtain European Commission funding.

But a broader, political awareness of the need for building alliances across borders was the key to PIAA’s involvement in, for example, the formation of AKAM, a Berlin-based multi-community AIDS prevention and care project. Gradually, PIAA’s networkers realized that PIAA’s model of what is termed in health care jargon "service provision" could be "useful for other situations in Europe."

Since a 1993 meeting in Blossin, Germany, held during the IXth International AIDS Conference, PIAA has been involved in the development of a strong network of grassroots ethnic minority AIDS service organizations.

Last July, PIAA researcher Oonagh O’Brien went to Bilbao, Spain for the first-ever meeting on migrants. Concern among members of T-4, a Basque country self-help group, about allegations of forced HIV testing of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, led to a strong statement condemning the human rights abuses of refugees in Spain and to the commitment to a "programme of service delivery" for migrants. According to O’Brien, "PIAA was invited to contribute its grassroots expertise on working with migrants," despite the obvious difference between PIAA’s community self-organization efforts and the attempt to organize solidarity with migrants in Spain.

By the time of the Third Meeting in Drierbergen (see Migrants against HIV/AIDS, December 1995), a group of close to 80 organizations were active in the European network. However, efforts to develop contacts continue, especially in the southern European countries. Six participants from France attended, for the first time, the Meeting in Drierbergen.

There, PIAA co-facilitated several workshops, including those on fundraising, drug use, and human rights. The meeting’s key objective, however, was to discuss the more formal coordination and objectives for the European Network for Ethnic Minorities and AIDS. A consensus was reached by the end of the meeting. "The democratic work methods of a community-based organization like PIAA," explained O’Brien, "contribute to the democratic way in which the network operates."