toronto.jpg

I have just came back from the AIDS Conference in Toronto. This week has been amazing and very educational. I will present some of the people i met in next week's blog. But this week i would like to focus on an experience that happened to me on my way back from Toronto and that must have happened to many of the delegations and communities that came to Toronto. Air Canada has been comunicating on the last month on the fact that they were key partners and supportive of the AIDS conference. I was checking in the presentation boards from the exhibitions of the AIDS conference that i was kindly bringing back to Geneva on behalf of another orgznisation in addition to my own luggage. Air Canada made me pay USD 350 as each passeneger was not allowed more than two pieces regardless of weight, which was 3/4 kgs each. Many people who came from their countries to present on their work in their communities would be faced witht the same challenge as they return their exhibitions.

All week i have been hearing about the lack of political will and the lack of commitment. Air Canada was very pleased to annonced their so called "support" to the AIDS conference. These two boards were brought to the Roll Back Malaria booth to educate and to do advocacy on the impact of malaria on people living with HIV/AIDS. Maybe not a big deal, Roll Back Malaria should be able to afford this extra cost. But what about all these delegations and communities that surely don't have the same financial power. What about the idea that this 350 USD represents more than 200 hundred treatments that could cure malaria and save lives. More than 200 children could have been saved with this 350 USD. So i am kind of wondering what kind of support and partnership companies like Air Canada are developing. They should feel ashamed and stop pretending to support causes that they don't care about.