Balou: We are the Fimizore association
Which means Association to protect the rights of everyone. I will explain a little bit about Fimizore
It's an association of MSM ( men having sex with men) and TDS (sexual workers)
The headquarters are located in Antananarivo, Madagascar VNVTSD. It documents the hardship
caused by not knowing your rights, because your basic rights as a human being are not respected.
So that adds to the known difficulties of being a sexual workers or MSM. Our goal is to create a
network of associations. There are 10 associations of sexual workers and 3 of MSM within our network.
Our struggle is about ending marginalization. If communities are marginalized, we will not win the fight against HIV/AIDS.
I would like to digress a little bit from the theme of the conference here, because when we listen to the government or the rest of the world,
they always put HIV/AIDS first, but we believe that
it's not the right approach. We ought to end marginalization first
Because this is the exact reason why MSM and TDS are not taking care of their health.
That is what I would like to convey: End marginalization first, then fight HIV AIDS.
Question: Do you think that we have made progress in the civil society with respect to that issue ?
We are not entirely satisfied. There is evidently the issue of the traditional culture of Madagascar.
For instance, if you are a MSM, you will not be allowed in the familial cemetery.
The state authorities have made tremendous progress that we are satisfied with, but the we still meed to work a lot to improve the civil society.
Jeannie: My name is Jeannie, memeber of FIMIZORE, with my sister here
I will concur with that she said about marginalization in Madagascar. There are still a lot of that there.
There were a lot of changes since 2000,
about marginalization of sexual workers and MSM. For instance, a lot of sexual workers have acquired more knowledge and
are now working with doctors and the police force
for increased acceptance and ending discrimination which has improved a lot.
But there are still a lot to be done, especially when it comes to marginalization of MSM and sexual workers...
the fight to end HIV/AIDS should include the fight against marginalization
our challenge is to let the world know that sexual workers and MSM are capable of achieving good things
We have initiated a lot of projects and would like to continue doing so
we are looking for partners, whether at the financial or technical level,
That is what we are hoping for, we open our projects to everyone
to help our association, it does not have to be financial contribution but mostly technical help, which are much needed.