The Pulse: December 2023

website feature

The new LetsStopAIDS website is officially live! Our site includes an indepth breakdown of our mission, programmes, community, and more.

Check out page 4 for details.

WORLD AIDS DAY RECAP

LET YOUTH LEAD

This past World AIDS Day, LetsStopAIDS embarked on a video campaign looking to amplify youth voices and highlight the importance of youth leadership in ending HIV/AIDS. “Let Youth Lead” is a storytelling campaign that shares the wishes, pain points, and challenges that young leaders have faced and are currently facing in the fight against HIV/ AIDS.

Our campaign directly follows suit with the 2023 UNAIDS World AIDS Day campaign, “Let Communities Lead” which highlights the importance of organizations taking a step back and providing space for community-led initiatives to take the forefront in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The “Let Youth Lead” campaign has reached over 100,000 people since its release, demonstrating the power that youth have in sparking conservations.

hiv/AIDS MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

On the morning of December 1st, LetsStopAIDS attended the annual AIDS memorial hosted by the Toronto People With AIDS Foundation (PWA) in Barbara Hall Park. The memorial gives individuals a chance to come together, pause, reflect, and commemorate the lives lost due to

LetsStopAIDS is grateful to have been given the opportunity to share the space with our fellow friends and community organizations, who continue to fight for housing equality, equitable healthcare access, and intersectional approaches towards addressing the epidemic within marginalized communities. Hearing these passionate individuals come forward and speak about their unique lived-experiences truly underlined the importance of community-led initiatives in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

WORLD AIDS DAY RECAP

P2P WORKSHOPS

This World AIDS Day also marked the opportunity for the LetsStopAIDS team to partner with Seneca College and host a number of P2P workshops simultaneously across the Newnham, Markham, York, and King campuses. These workshops represent only a fraction of the workshops being delivered throughout the months of December and January in different high schools, and universities across Toronto.

Since LetsStopAIDS’ recent partnership with Toronto District School Board (TDSB), our dedicated staff and volunteers have been working tirelessly to deliver these workshops in an effort to supplement Canadian Youth’s understanding of HIV/AIDS. The success of these workshops have demonstrated that an interactive approach is the best way to ensure student engagement, and we will continue to work towards this goal one workshop at a time.

Voices for World AIDS Day

To finish the night, the LetsStopAIDS team attended the Voices for World AIDS Day event hosted by Casey House at the Toronto Reference Library. The evening was dedicated to celebrating Black women and their accomplishments within the HIV/AIDS movement, and entailed a heartfelt collection of personal struggles, triumphs, and lived experiences. The event was a reminder to all that Black women play a crucial role in ending HIV/AIDS, and that community-led initiatives should always be considered with an intersectional approach. Thank you so much to our friends at Casey House for letting us take part in this incredible event.

January 2024

LETSSTOPAIDS IN ACTION

WIN UP TO $1500!

SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL

The Winning Seed is a programme designed to give young people the opportunity to start their own HIV initiative with the help of funding and mentorship by LetsStopAIDS.

Your creative project may be the next big idea that changes the way people think about HIV! & mentorship to realize your dream project

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Click here to apply! WANT TO SUBMIT AN IDEA?

Choose your SDG for a chance to see your come to life. HIV advocacy initiative

LONELINESS IN THE COUNTRY’S MOST POPULATED CITY

UPCOMING EVENTS IN CANADA

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Whistler pride and ski week 2023

Whistler Mountain, Whistler, BC Jan 21

55+ Queer MEn’s Discussion Group 1033 Davie St, Vancouver, BC Jan 3

ALBERTA

Queer board Games

The Sentry Box, Calgary, AB

DEC 15

cOLLEQTIVE

CommunityWise Resource Centre, Calgary, AB

Jan 26

SASKATCHEWAN

Rapid Access Counselling Frances Morrison Central Library, Saskatoon, SK Dec 22

International Conference on Science, Health and Medicine 2023

TBA, Regina, SK Dec 25 Dec 26

QUéBEC

Harm Reduction material pick up

AIDS Community Care Montreal, Montreal, QC

DEC 19

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MEDICAL, PHARMACEUTICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES 2023

TBA, Montreal, QC Dec 29 dec 30

NOVA SCOTIA

Dalhousie health justice institute seminar series

Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie

University, Halifax, Canada

Jan 12

ONTARIO

International Conference on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment (ICHAPT) Toronto, ON Jan 3

Children’s holiday party Toronto PWA Foundation, Toronto, ON Dec 17

Men’s Peer to Peer Support Group

Pozitive Pathways, Windsor, ON Dec 20

UPCOMING EVENTS AROUND THE WORLD

North America

Bethegeneration

San Diego, US JAN 1

HIV & Infectious disease

training

Colorado Springs, US Jan 18 - Jan 19

Current issues in lgbtq Health with isci

Chicago, US JAN 25

South AMerica

World Congress on Healthcare & Health

Economics

Lima, PE DEC 22 - DEC 23

mHealthux | Intro to gamifying health

São Paulo, BR DEC 14

Love sessions 2023

Rio de Janeiro, BR DEC 16 - DEC 17

EUrope

International Conference on HIV, AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections

Turin, IT DEC 20 - DEC 27

International Conference on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment (ICHAPT)

Tampere, FI JAN 8

africa

Nutrition and hiv/aids management

Pretoria, ZA DEC 4 - DEC 15

WORLD congress on infectious diseases

Teyateyaneng, LS DEC 28

ASIA

Internatioal Conference on emerging infectious diseases

Hanoi, VN DEC 29

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HIV/AIDS

Berlin, DE DEC 29

WHOSE AIDS?

Brussels, BE DEC 14

HIV Awareness training

Bristol, UK JAN 19

OCEANIA

Positive Youth

Brisbane, AU DEC 18

YOUTH Mental health first aid course

Sydney, AU DEC 19

THe Future of medicine, health care and biological studies

Wellington, NZ DEC 21

COLE KAUDERMCMURRICH

Cole has been with LetsStopAIDS since the end of September, working as a front-end developer and back-end engineer for a collection of our different websites. As a coop student, Cole has been working closely alongside our own full stack developer, Kai and claims to have learned a lot about development, programming, and HIV/AIDS in general.

Outside of LetsStopAIDS, Cole is also an active member of his school’s robotics team, Warps 7. This club involves constructing a different robot every year from scratch, and

MANINDER KAUR

Maninder joined LetsStopAIDS in September 2023 as co-op student and is currently working as a volunteer for the People & Culture team. Over the last 3 months, Maninder has learned a lot from her role which includes onboarding new staff, coordinating our vast network of interns and co-op students, and managing all of the LetsStopAIDS recruitment team’s communication channels.

“Keep smiling and take life as it comes at you – Don’t stress oUT TOO MUCH!”

Outside of work, Maninder loves to spend her time reading motivational books & watching motivational videos. In her own words, she is a very positive person and loves to spread her positivity with the people around her.

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