JOY BLOG

26 Feb 2014

World AIDS Day Worldwide

The world’s first LGBTI community radio station, Australia’s JOY 94.9, has delivered a deeply thought-provoking radio and web-streaming simulcast, setting the agenda before Melbourne welcomes the world for AIDS 2014 in July.

In a ground-breaking 24-hour global conversation bringing together world leaders in medical research, scientific development and community leadership, World AIDS Day Worldwide coincided with the launch of the 20th International AIDS Conference – the largest conference of its kind ever seen in Australia.

As World AIDS Day unfolded across the globe, World AIDS Day Worldwide united the biggest names and most powerful leaders in the global HIV response, opening with the woman who 30 years ago discovered HIV, the president of the International AIDS Society, winner of the Nobel Prize in 2008 and co-chair of AIDS 2014, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi.

World AIDS Day Worldwide featured contributions from renowned experts in HIV medicine and science with local and diverse community leaders globally, including:

Chief General Craig McClure, HIV and AIDS Programme Division for UNICEF
Gottfried Hirnschall, director of the HIV Department of the World Health Organization (WHO)
Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS
Sharon Lewin, head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Monash University and the Alfred Hospital; co-head of the Centre for Biomedical Research at the Burnet Institute; and Australian co-chair of AIDS 2014.

In a truly remarkable feat of combining technology and hard-working, dedicated volunteers, not-for-profit community radio station JOY 94.9 captivated an audience from all corners of the globe through its online audio and visual web stream and complementary real-time social media interaction.