Health and Well-being
Hamaseh Kianfar (website link), and Voices for Justice team had the opportunity to meet with the President and CEO of Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance (GAIA), a non-profit organization, to discuss their mutual commitment to social justice and HIV/AIDS prevention. Voices for Justice continues to support AIDS prevention works in Malawi, in creating long-term healthcare capacity through nursing scholarships, to empowering women, to caring for orphans and providing HIV treatment and prevention to vulnerable villagers.
Voices for Justice launched an annual baby knit cap project. For many years handmade knit caps have been donated to orphanages, hospitals, clinics and schools in Malawi (Africa) and Bangladesh. Malawi is one of the 11 poorest countries in Africa and there are 550,000 orphaned children currently living in Malawi. Both Malawi and Bangladesh have high rates of infant death. The caps are distributed through collaboration with other humanitarian organizations, including Save the Children.
(http://ias.org/departments/vfj/projects/)
Food Drive
In support of the United Nations Missions to eliminate poverty and hunger and to achieve universal primary education, Voices for Justice has developed ongoing programs of food drives to eliminate hunger; and to contribute towards universal primary education, including:
- holding a quarterly food drive to support families in need in Marin County.
- collecting non-perishable food items to be donated to Women’s and Homeless Shelters in December, March, June, and September
(http://ias.org/departments/vfj/projects/)
HIV/AIDS Awareness
AIDS Walk San Francisco
Voices for Justice has been volunteering and participating in Annual AIDS Walk San Francisco. The events are always well attended and raise awareness of the severity of HIV/AIDS. Voices for Justice is dedicated to raising awareness of the HIV/AIDS crisis in our local communities and internationally.
Hamaseh Kianfar has an extensive research on HIV and Living Positively and her research may be found at hamasehkianfar.com; and her co-authored article on: A Qualitative Study Examining HIV Antiretroviral Adherence Counseling and Support in Community Pharmacies may be found at 454 Journal of Managed Care Pharmacy JMCP July/August 2013 Vol. 19, No. 6.
Hamaseh Kianfar also gave a presentation on Living Positively: Narratives of Forgiveness and Imagination Among Women With HIV at Dominican University, as part of the ongoing program: Building Bridges of Understanding. hamasehkianfar.com/living-positively/
Cancer Awareness
Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, San Francisco
Did you know? Breast cancer is a leading cause of death for women in the world , three million women in the United States are living with breast cancer In the past five years, 4.4 million women were diagnosed with breast cancer and survived.
Voices for Justice supported The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer and the Avon Foundation for promoting awareness and providing education throughout the world about the severity of breast cancer.
http://ias.org/departments/vfj/projects/
Domestic Violence Awareness
Voices for Justice has hosted panels, roundtable discussions and small group meetings focused on education to understand the signs of domestic violence, and has also partnered with SWO in addressing domestic violence. One of the joint projects included the presentation of a panel discussion entitled: Recognizing Women’s Rights and Creating a Safe Place.