All five HIV-Nordic member organisations gather in Helsinki
The schedule was full of activities when HIVFinland/Positiiviset was host for the HIV-Nordic networking and annual meeting of 2025. Guests at the get together were representatives of HIV-Sweden, HIVNorway, HIVIceland and HIV-Denmark.
The meeting began on Thursday, January 30, at HIVFinland’s headquarters on Malminkatu Street in central Helsinki.. After a short welcome round and introduction of the local observers from HIVFinland, Rigmor C Berg from the Department of Community Medicine at UiT The Arctic University of Norway gave a presentation on stigma. The focal point of Rigmors presentation was the structural and systemic aspects of HIV stigma and the settings in which HIV stigma still thrives and negatively affect people living with HIV as well as HIV prevention. Healthcare settings was identified as a key area in which there needs to be improvement. Rigmor previously presented the material at the HIV Drug Therapy Glasgow 2024 conference.
The meeting continued with country updates from all countries. A shared concern among all representatives was the growing instability and uncertain future of HIV-related work in the region.. Funding has been decreased or restructured in many Nordic countries, causing concern for the often successful HIV related work carried out in the Nordics. This could result in less momentum and resources for improving the situation for people living with HIV and new HIV infections over time. The full updates from each country can be found in documents archive on our website.
Annual meeting 2025
After breakfast it was time for the annual meeting. The meeting was attended by 8 representatives from 5 member organisations and 2 local observers. The chair presented the annual report and the highlights of 2024, a summary of 2024 is as follows:
– Online annual meeting 15th February
– Applied for network funding at Nordic Welfare Center for the year 2025 and received 27500 SEK, no project funding given due to a large number of networking applications.
– Nordic gathering at the AIDS 2024 Conference in Munich, and the production and promotion of the video “Insights from the Nordics”, released by HIV-Sweden.
– Network meeting 26-28 April in Copenhagen. We visited Checkpoint, shared country updates, and discussed current issues. We also organized “The Nordic HIV Experience” on the 27th of April with approximately 40-45 participants online and in person. A good outcome with a very small budget of 20 000 SEK which apart from the event resulted in a good presence on social media with custom made graphics.
– Network meeting 27-29 September in Malmö, including study visits and presentations from two local hiv organizations.
– Produced and published 2 articles on hiv-norden.org
The board also discussed the financial situation of the organization and concluded that we need to continue to be frugal with our spending. There is a shared ambition in the board to try find new funding resources in order to expand our Nordic work with HIV and in particular the ideas that we have worked out and not been successful in securing funding.
Apart from the changes from the Norwegian delegation, where Jacob left his seat for Ronda, the board and its representatives stayed intact after the annual meeting.
Friday night Nordic HIV get together at HIVFinland
Friday at 18:00 people gathered for a Nordic get together for people living with HIV. Some 30 people gathered and the evening started with Juulia Kela from Finland, a PhD candidate and a nursing student, who presented data from her research on HIV stigma in emergency care. Anders Dahl, representative from HIV-Denmark then followed up with a study on HIV stigma from Denmark. After the presentations discussions emerged among the participants and ideas were raised in how to combat and increase knowledge to reduce hiv related stigma (For an idea of the outcomes see images from Menti). The night continued with a Thai inspired dinner in the office of HIVFinland. We also had the chance to try Runebergkaka as dessert, and this concluded the day.
After breakfast on Saturday we continued with country updates from Denmark, who were the last country to present updates. After lunch the board and observers discussed the next meeting, which tentatively will take place after the summer. The board also addressed the challenges in receiving funding and worked out a statement calling for increased funding, which was then tailored to each country and the individual needs and circumstances of the member organisations.
Looking back on a successful 2024, we now set our sights on a productive and impactful 2025.
