I am delighted to be able to say that we have a new Co-Chair Memory Sachikonye. Many of you may already know Memory for the great work that she has done in the HIV sector so Sophia Forum is delighted to have such an amazing woman join us on the Board. Welcome and thank you for joining us Memory.
In late November of this year Sophia Forum will celebrate being in existence for 10 years. This is a cause for reflection, celebration and looking forward to the future. We are delighted that we have made it to this anniversary, in times of continued austerity and cuts to services, continued existence is far from guaranteed.
Sophia Forum is an essential organisation, championing, as it does, the issues for women living with HIV; often in environments where those issues can be overlooked.
We still remain the only organisation in the UK whose sole focus is women living with HIV. Sophia Forum is needed now more than ever, there are 35,500 heterosexual women living with HIV in the UK, 25,100 of whom are Black African. HIV prevalence in the UK is 1.9 per 1,000 women, for African women 71 per 1,000 women. 1520 women were newly diagnosed with HIV in 2013
We are hosting a 10th anniversary celebratory event on the 25th of November 2015 in Central London. This will be invitation only, with invitations are going out in the next 10 days or so. If you do not receive an invitation but are interested to attend then pleaseemail us. Space is limited but we will do our best to accommodate requests.
We are hoping to be able to produce the newsletter on a more regular basis in the future and would like to feature articles from as many women living with HIV as possible. Our next newsletter will be a special 10th anniversary edition and we are happy to take articles for the newsletter from women living with HIV across the country. Please email potential articles to [email protected].
Lynda Shentall, Co-Chair