‘Africa Forum: The problem of HIV/AIDS in Africa and NYC’
At Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus, November 15
- Conference includes ambassadors from Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe -

Brooklyn, N.Y. – An important conference on the political, cultural and economic challenges of AIDS in New York City and Africa will take place at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus.

The one-day conference, entitled “Africa Forum: The problem of HIV/AIDS in Africa and in New York City,” will take place on Wednesday, November 15, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Library Learning Center, Room 122. Free and open to the public, it will feature two panel presentations.

“The conference will focus on the ways in which culture has influenced the high incidence of HIV/AIDS in the community and how governments have responded to address the problem,” says assistant professor of anthropology Yusuf Juwayeyi.

In the morning panel, from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., experts will discuss the demographics of the illness, government funding for research, who is paying for treatment and service provision.

Panelists include Ellen Cates, a senior case manager at Bedford Stuyvesant Family Health and Wellness Center; Eve Ammons-Johnson, Bedford Stuyvesant/Crown Heights HIV Care Network; Anjali Sharma, Department of Infectious Disease, SUNY Downstate; and moderator Amandia Speakes-Lewis, Campus’s social work department.

The afternoon session, from 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. will focus on the problem of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Participants will have a chance to compare local responses to HIV/AIDS with those of African countries. A series of short documentary films about HIV/AIDS in Africa will be followed by a discussion with H.E. Francis Butagira, ambassador of Uganda to the United Nations; H.E. Lt. Col. B.G. Chidyausiku, ambassador of Zimbabwe to the United Nations; H.E. Tens Kapoma, ambassador of Zambia to the United Nations; H.E. Bunmi Makinwa, director of UNAIDS, New York Office; and moderator Juwayeyi.

The event is presented by the Brooklyn Campus departments of sociology/anthropology and social work and the Common Ground Service Learning Program. For more information, call Yusuf Juwayeyi at (718) 488-1168 or Amy Krentzman at (718) 488-3372.

Long Island University opened its Brooklyn Campus in 1926, welcoming a diverse population at a time when other major universities enforced quota systems against racial and ethnic minorities. Located at the corner of Flatbush Avenue Extension and DeKalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, the Campus is accessible to all major bus and subway routes and the Long Island Rail Road.

Press Releases