by Cheryl Overs
For me AIDS 2010 was the culmination of months of work as a Community Programming Committee (CPC) member and co-chair of the Global Village. It was also the first time in several years that I have seen all the global and regional sex workers rights activists. In that time the Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) and other networks have formalised and gathered funding and rights awareness has spread to more countries. So it was wonderful to see old friends and to meet the wonderful new activists from countries as diverse as Guyana, Kenya, USA, South Africa, UK, China and Uganda.
It was great to catch up with people who have gone from being peer educators to managing programmes and public advocacy, to see the materials sex workers are producing and to see the NSWP itself thriving under the leadership of my old friend Ruth Morgan Thomas (three months older than me). I am sure that for many people the Red Umbrellas would be the most potent symbol of the struggle for human rights they remember from the conference.