CAPS Activists – A Catholic Voice in the HIV Sector

CAPS Activists – A Catholic Voice in the HIV Sector

The first public meeting to address the emergence of AIDS in the UK took place 40 years ago on 21st May 1983. To mark this anniversary, the THT gathered some of the same activists from the original meeting to speak at Silence = Death: 40 Years of Speaking Out about HIV, also at Conway Hall, the original meeting venue, in May this year. As a ‘trip down memory lane’, the event attracted over 100 attendees who recalled the immense struggles faced by the first AIDS activists and pioneers in the face of hostility and prejudice in wider society. In questions from the floor CAPS’ members contributed to a lively discussion which included recollections of the sometimes helpful and more-often unhelpful role of religious leaders in the earliest years of the pandemic.

After a consultation period of almost 12 months, CAPS has renegotiated our role in a partnership to deliver support for PLWH across London. With funding from the boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham a new three-year services contract commenced in October 2023. The partnership includes the METRO, African Advocacy Foundation and Positively UK HIV voluntary sector organisations. CAPS contribution will be the provision of faith-sensitive pastoral support and the provision of a monthly support group for Gay men LWH in London.

Pastoral Support Worker Abigail Chakanyuka, provided outreach and information sessions about Positive Faith in person with a large group of patients at the NHS Caldecot HIV Clinic at Kings Hospital, London and via a webinar ‘in conversation’ with peer support worker Fernando Monteiro for the Bloomsbury Network, part of the peer support service at the Mortimer Market Sexual Health Clinic, London. Typical of the feedback from participants Joe and Clara said that the sessions were “wonderfully informative and well-pitched.”. Abigail has been invited to return!