Vancouver-based Indigenous HIV organization uses Aboriginal AIDS Awareness Week to highlight funding cuts – Straight.com
November 29th, 2017
Although the rate of infection among Indigenous people is 2.7 times higher than other Canadians, numerous Indigenous HIV organizations in Canada have had their federal funding cut. One such organization is bringing attention back to those cuts for Aboriginal AIDS Awareness Week 2017 and World AIDS Day (December 1).
Ken Clement has been the executive director for the non-profit Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network (CAAN) for the past decade (and has worked with the organization for an additional five years). CAAN, which represents over 340 member organizations and individuals, is among the Indigenous HIV organizations that had their funding cut by the Public Health Agency of Canada, which has changed the way it allocates funding under the HIV and Hepatitis C Community Action Fund.
By phone with the Georgia Straight, he said CAAN has lost $400,000, or 46 percent, of their funding. The cuts were announced in October 2016 and will become effective in the next fiscal year, which begins on April 1, 2018.
