Dr. Grob attends HIV/AIDS conference in Mexico City

The Rev. Dr. Bruce R. Grob will be attending the International HIV/AIDS Conference in Mexico City August 3 through 8, 2008.

The annual, week-long event will include individuals and groups from around the world, including the Red Cross, Catholic Relief Services, university medical centers, research centers, government representatives, foundation representatives and more.

“It’s usually a pretty broad and inclusive individual and organizational gathering,” said Dr. Grob.

The conference, which has been gathering annually for more than 25 years, has grown from a scientific meeting to a large, international event. In fact, 2006’s keynote speakers included Bill Gates and Bill Clinton.

“It began as a gathering of scientists to address the most recent research on HIV and AIDS treatments,” said Dr. Grob. “It expanded and grew over the years into a much broader agenda dealing with the politics of the disease, social and economic impacts of the disease, and prevention strategies.”

Dr. Grob will be participating in a panel discussion about faith-based organizations addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa. He will be speaking about Syafundisa, FreshMinistries’ partnership with the Anglican Church in sub-Saharan Africa to help expand the infrastructure and HIV/AIDS prevention programs there.

Dr. Grob has also been working to help the Anglican AIDS Healthcare Trust (AAHT) in southern Africa get to a point where they can apply for and manage grants on their own, a topic he will address as well.

“In some ways, my job is to put myself out of a job,” said Dr. Grob. “It’s been a great partnership and a model that has worked well. AAHT has grown dramatically in terms of their capacity and ability to develop a program like this.”

During the conference, Dr. Grob will be meeting up with Sabelo Mashwama, CEO of the Anglican AIDS Trust and partner in Syafundisa. They will both be recognized speakers at the conference because of the uniqueness of what they have done through the church in southern Africa.

Dr. Grob and Mashwama hope to compare curriculums with other HIV/AIDS programs and learn about ways to improve and expand the Syafundisa program.

“We both want to look at the other prevention programs that are out there,” said Dr. Grob. “One of the biggest challenges in prevention is how to measure your results. [And] we’re looking at not only expanding this program, but other kinds of initiatives that we could explore utilizing the capacity and infrastructure we’ve created over there,”

For example, local church groups could distribute mosquito netting to help prevent Malaria or use churches and church sites as HIV testing centers.

After the conference, both Mashwama and Dr. Grob will return to Jacksonville, where they will film appearances on two local television shows.

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