About Us

Background

Purpose or role of the Interim Committee on HIV among Black Canadian Communities

Canadian responses to HIV have failed Black Canadian communities. We are the Interim Committee on HIV among Black Canadian Communities (ICHBCC) that brings together researchers, community health practitioners, healthcare professionals, community advocates, and people living with HIV from Canada’s diverse Black communities to:

• develop and disseminate critical analysis and understanding about HIV among Black communities;
• advocate for and champion transformative strategies, opportunities, directions and interventions to eliminate the burden of HIV among Black communities and achieve health equity;
• engage Black stakeholders to advocate for and adopt community-engaged transformative approached to addressing HIV

How the ICBCCC got started

A group of Black stakeholders (researchers, community advocates, service providers and people living with HIV) came together as an ad hoc committee in December 2021 to explore the possibilities for a transformative agenda on HIV in Black communities.

The committed developed a draft Black HIV Manifesto and organized a special session at the Canadian HIV conference (CAHR 2022) for Black researchers, people living with HIV, and community health practitioners to: share their concerns about the failure of Canadian responses to HIV among Black communities; discuss the draft Manifesto, and explore ideas for a transformative, community-engaged approach to addressing HIV in our communities.

At a follow-up meeting in June 2022 the committee recruited additional members, adopted and finalized the draft Manifesto, and agreed on a program of advocating to leading Canadian health authorities and institutions for a transformative, enabling, anti-racist agenda to address HIV. The committee also adopted the “Interim” label as part of its name.

ICHBCC members

The current members of ICHBCC are David Este, Eric Peters, LaRon Nelson, Maureen Owino, OmiSoore Dryden (co-chair), Tatiana Sotindjo, Wangari Tharao, and Winston Husbands (co-chair).