Monthly Archives: December 2013

2013 has been an amazing year for ACAS, and we would like to extend our gratitude to our allies, volunteers, donors and community partners so that we can continue to provide the much needed culturally and linguistically appropriate services to the East and Southeast Asian HIV and LGBTQ communities in Ontario. Some of the work we accomplished in the past year are: Organizing health promotion workshops, holistic health mini-clinics, and a treatment adherence skills building weekend for HIV+ people thanks to community partners, small business owners, and pharmaceutical companies Launching a new website integrated with Google translate to provide better accessibility and online zine, Qi Magazine, featuring a sexual health related blogs, interviews, stories, comics, art and photography Distributing thousands of condoms at Asian community events, festivals, bathhouses, and dance parties Conducting sexual health education workshops with over 700 attendance Recruiting and retaining 120 active volunteers ankara escort ankara escort çankaya escort çankaya escort escort bayan çankaya istanbul rus escort eryaman escort ankara escort kızılay escort istanbul escort ankara escort ankara escort escort ankara istanbul rus Escort atasehir Escort beylikduzu Escort Ankara Escort malatya Escort kuşadası Escort gaziantep Escort izmir Escort And to all the donors and supporters who helped us at the ACAS Scotia Run Challenge, Golden Piggy Challenge, and the World AIDS Day #LOVEandFORTUNE13 fundraising drive, we would like to say a big thank you for your generosity and dedication. We look forward to celebrating 20 years of ACAS and World Pride 2014 with you next year!

A year end note from Board Treasurer: December is a month of festivity and celebration. As year end approaches, we ask that you remember ACAS in your holiday plans. Please consider making a positive impact by setting aside part of your budget to support the work of ACAS with a tax-deductible donation. In the past year, with your support from members like you and our funders, we were able to provide relief fund and health promotion workshops for over 100 HIV+ people and their families. We had 783 people attended our sexual health workshops and distributed 18,880 safer sex materials to Asians living in Toronto. We truly believe that our work has a powerful impact not only on the people that we directly work with, but also on the larger Asian community as a whole. We rely on charitable donations in order to continue to provide these quality services. And that is why we ask you to remember ACAS with a charitable gift in support of our important work during the year end season. Any amount you can share will be greatly appreciated and put to good use right here with us. You can either donate online via ACAS website at http://acas.org or send a cheque to ACAS, 260 Spadina Ave., #410, Toronto, ON M5T 2E4. I thank you very much in advance for your contribution and support. I wish you a Happy Holiday and a great 2014! Sincerely, Joel Bansil Chair, Fundraising Committee Board Treasurer Make donations now at: http://acas.org

  Interested in letting us know how we are doing and have help us improve our programming or services? Please fill out the ACAS Men's Program or Women's Program Surveys: Asian Men Sexual Health Survey Dec.2013 The Purpose of this survey is to collect information for the improvement of ACAS Men’s Education and Outreach program, as it is our aim to provides HIV/STIs prevention and support services for the East/Southeast Asian populations in Ontario. For this survey, you would have to identify as an East/Southeast Asian gay/bi or men who have sex with men. This survey will approximately take 10 minutes and it is anonymous and confidential. Thank you for your support and ongoing contribution to ACAS. If you have any questions, please contact: Daniel Le Men Sexual Health Promoter mensexualhealth@acas.org 416-963-4300 Ext.236 Richard Utama Men's Sexual Health Coordinator men@acas.org 416-963-4300 Ext.235 Ryan Tran Peer Outreach Worker gaap@acas.org The ACAS Women’s Program Survey This survey is for us to understand Southeast/East Asian women's understanding and knowledge around HIV/AIDS as well as safer sex practices/behaviors. It is completely anonymous. We would really appreciate if you could take a moment to fill out this survey. We deeply appreciate your help in advance. Here is the link for the questionnaire: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/womensquestionnaire2013 Also, if you know any self-identified Southeast/East Asian women who may be interested in filling this survey, please feel free to forward this email/link. We would like to collect the survey as many as possible. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions/concerns. Thank you for your continuous support of the ACAS Women's Program! Chie Takano Reeves Women’s Education & Outreach Program Coordinator (416) 963-4300 ext. 225 ∙women@acas.org      

Thanks to everyone who came out to support our #LOVEandFORTUNE13 World AIDS Day Awareness Donation Drive on November 28, 2013. As you can see from our lovely video, everyone had an amazing time! Currently, ACAS is holding a Win iSkin earTones (Earphones + Mic) Prize Draw.  You can enter the draw by simply “liking”, sharing, or commenting on any post by Asian Community AIDS Services (ACAS) on ACAS Facebook Page that are posted between December 1 and 13. Ten (10) winners will be chosen on December 16. Please follow the two steps to enter the contest. 1. “Like” ACAS Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/AsianCommunityAIDSServices 2. “like”, share, or comment on posts by ACAS posted between December 1 and 13 We will contact the winners via private message on Facebook. We will announce the winners on ACAS Facebook Page. The winners are required to visit ACAS to pick up the prizes by January 31, 2014. ACAS staff and their immediate family as well as Board members and their immediate family are ineligible to win this contest. iSkin earTones http://www.iskin.com/eartones/ #LOVEandFORTUE13

Winter has finally arrived, but that has not stopped ACAS and QAY from becoming even more involved in the community. Aside from fun programming hosted by the Women’s and Youth Programs, our staff members have we busy presenting various research conferences this past month. To top off the excitement, ACAS has also been mentioned in several media publications this month! ACAS goes international at ICAPP 2013! As the only AIDS service organization serving the East and Southeast Asian population infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in Canada, ACAS presented our innovative approach to online outreach to the gay, bi and MSM population and our community-based research findings on migrant workers and sexual health at the 11th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAPP 2013) in Thailand. Our executive director, Noulmook Sutdhibhasilp, and staff members Daniel Le and Heywon Kim had a great time learning about the various wonderful HIV initiatives taking place across the Asia Pacific and exchanging knowledge on best practices with our Asian counterparts at the conference.   The BC Gay Men’s Health Summit 2013 & the OHTN Research Conference 2013 The ACAS Asian MSM Pathways to Resiliency (AMP2R) Study team have been busy sharing their preliminary findings on the strengths and resiliency strategies of Asian gay/bi men and MSMs in research conferences across the nation this path month. Principle investigator Dr. Alan Li and Research Coordinator Christian Hui presented an interactive workshop on “Creating pathways of resiliencies amongst Asian & ethno-racial MSM communities” at the BC Gay Men’s Health Summit 2013 in Vancouver, BC on November 7-8, 2013. Two weeks later, Dr. Li and Christian Hui gave an oral presentation entitled “From crisis to rebirth – Exploring resiliency response of Asian MSM in dealing with testing HIV positive” at the Ontario HIV Treatment Network Research [...]