A groundbreaking conference is being held in Canada this spring—the first National Conference on Women and HIV/AIDS. This much-needed, and for many of us, long overdue opportunity for people to come together to discuss many aspects of this issue will be held on May 25–28, 2000, at the Wyndham Bristol Place Hotel in Toronto. Among the subjects (or "paths" as they are called for purposes of the Conference) for discussion and analysis are prevention, support, treatment and legal, and ethical and public policy concerns relating to women.

Other topics to be addressed include violence against women, microbicides (a prevention approach totally within the control of the user), discrimination in drug trials, sexual health needs of HIV + women, vaccines, family issues, and population specific intervention models, just to name a few.

The idea for this Conference was first conceived in 1997 when some women from Canada including myself attended the National Women’s Conference in the U.S. When we got together to compare notes after the Conference we began to wonder out loud why we couldn’t have such a conference in Canada. There is little doubt that women are a seriously at risk population in North America just as we have been elsewhere around the world for a long time. At the end of 1996 there was estimated to be 4,600 women living with HIV infection and women comprised 22.6% of new HIV infections in Canada, an increase from less than 10% before 1996 and 14% in 1997–90. Among adult Aboriginal women the proportion of AIDS cases is higher than among adult non-Aboriginal women (17.5% to 6.4%).

We are also aware that the issue of injection drug use and HIV transmission is particularly important for women since it is a more common risk factor for us with 18.2% of female AIDS cases being attributed to injection drug use versus 4.0% for male cases.

It was time to start a dialogue about all of these findings as well as many other issues of critical importance to women relative to HIV.

Informal discussions began between representatives of the Canadian AIDS Society (CAS) and the Canadian Treatment Advocates Council (CTAC) to determine what would be required to get a Women and HIV Conference off the ground and whether there appeared to be interest from sponsors to fund such a conference. CAS took a lead in coordinating the logistics at this early stage and determined that there was a high level of support for such an undertaking.

An ad hoc group of women from across Canada then came together with funding from Health Canada and a structure for the Conference was developed. An exciting structure was created, with four organizations with national mandates guiding the process—CAS, CTAC, the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network (CAAN) and the Community AIDS Treatment Information Exchange (CATIE). A National Program Partners Committee was struck, with strong representation from HIV + women and from organizations with a mandate including HIV and women. This group has developed the subject areas (or paths) for the conference as well as the topics to be covered. It will also review and select abstracts for the conference.

The goals of this conference are numerous. It will provide an opportunity for HIV+ women from diverse social identities to share information, to network, and to build skills, which will enhance their empowerment. As well, they will share their knowledge and experience with community-based organizations and service providers working with women. This will enhance the abilities of those working in the AIDS field to respond to the needs of women with HIV and women at risk for HIV infection from diverse communities. Professional will also have an opportunity to network and to build skills. Ultimately it is hoped that these interactions will lead to the development of advocacy strategies in all aspects of work with women with HIV and in the prevention area.

These goals will be met through a series of different communication techniques including presentations by leading edge researchers in all research fields; capacity-building workshops and discussion sessions. All of these will focus specifically on the impact of issues on women and on the diverse populations that make up the women’s community.

We have been very fortunate that Health Canada and a number of private companies including a number of the pharmaceutical companies have committed funds for this Conference, however, we still need more support to provide scholarships to all of the HIV+ women who will need help to be able to attend.

So put this exciting and important Conference on your spring calendar. Scholarship applications and abstracts must be in by February 4^th and registration should be completed by April 1^st to obtain the best rate.