Anne-Christine d'Adesky

Anne-Christine d'Adesky

Anne-Christine d'Adesky is an American journalist and activist.[1]

Early life and education

D'Adesky is a New York native and is of French and Haitian descent.[2][3] Her father was born in Haiti, where the family's roots go back far; spending her childhood summers and still has extended family living there.[4] D'Adesky earned a master's degree in Journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1982 and a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College in New York City in 1979.[5]

Career

As a journalist, d'Adesky has been a foreign correspondent in Haiti working as a stringer for the San Francisco Examiner and the Village Voice. She wrote about HIV/AIDS for various newspapers, including the New York Native and In These Times, and later, magazines including The Advocate.[6]

She was Senior Editor at Out magazine in the mid-1990s in charge of health coverage, and also wrote investigative features and long-form profiles. In 1998, she launched HIV Plus magazine, where she served as founding editor in chief for two years before the magazine was sold to The Advocate. She then turned to writing a series on global AIDS for the newsletter of the amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research. She also wrote about AIDS for magazines such as SEED and The Nation, newspapers such as The San Francisco Examiner, and health agencies such as the World Health Organization.

In 2003 she co-produced Pills, Profits, Protest: Chronicle of the Global AIDS Movement, a documentary about global AIDS treatment activism.[7]

As an activist, d'Adesky has been active in the peace and women's movements and attended the Seneca Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice, where she protested the presence of nuclear cruise missiles on US soil. She was an early member of ACT UP[6] who participated in the first Wall Street protest, and other famous actions, demanding faster access to life-saving HIV medications, and later, access to HIV drugs for people living in poor countries. She also joined Get Smart, an arts activist group.

D'Adesky is one of the six founders of The Lesbian Avengers, which began in New York City in 1992 as "a direct action group focused on issues vital to lesbian survival and visibility."[2][8][9][10][11][12][13]

In 2003, d'Adesky began humanitarian work in Africa, focusing on the issue of gender-based violence linked to HIV/AIDS and the use of rape in war in East Africa. She launched and served as co-founder and co-executive director of a global initiative WE-ACTx, based in San Francisco and Kigali, that helps Rwandan women affected by HIV/AIDS who are survivors of genocidal rape, and orphans.[1] WE-ACTx works in partnership with the Rwandan government and a dozen non-governmental organizations to provide free, comprehensive HIV care, including free drugs and services to over 6,000 Rwandans (as of mid-2014). Many widows of the genocide who survived mass rape and are living with HIV/AIDS have receoved free comprehensive care from the WE-ACTx program to date. Thousands of Rwandans have also received free HIV testing and services.The organization has spawned a sister organization, WE-ACTx for Hope, with an all-Rwandan staff of 60 that operates two clinics in Kigali. WE-ACTx has also helped introduce cervical cancer screening, a research and laboratory diagnostics program, and training for Rwandan health care professionals in public health hospitals and clinics as part of its public-private partnership with the Rwandan government and its Ministry of Health. Today, almost all the dying women who accessed HIV treatment when WE-ACTx began in 2004 have recovered and many are healthy and living without detectable illness today. WE-ACTx also support a youth program, with many children born with HIV who are on treatment and provided with health and educational services and now attend school and are healthy. Some have become youth advocates and global youth ambassadors for others living with HIV in Rwanda.

In 2009, d'Adesky stepped down as co-Executive Director of WE-ACTx and remains a Board member. She shifted her attention to Haiti after the devastating January 2010 earthquake, where she has longtime family roots and began her reporting career. She reported on the catastrophe and launched a blog, Haiti Vox, to help link first responders with women's and orphans groups. d'Adesky co-founded PotoFanm+Fi ("Women and Girls Pillar" in Creole) as a global coalition with Haitian, diaspora and US feminist leaders to support Haitian women's voices and role in the national recovery. She was a lead author of a 2010 Gender Shadow Report on Haiti's reconstrution, and reported on this topic for World Pulse, the Global Post and other media outlets. She also broke the international media story involving US missionaries accused of trafficking Haitian earthquake orphans, led by Laura Silsby.

In 2014, d'Adesky published a new book, "Beyond Shock: Charting the Landscape of Sexual Violence in Post-Quake Haiti," (USCB Center for Black Studies Research), available as an e-book on Amazon (www.facebook.com/beyondshock). She is currently Global Coordinator for Haiti, since 2012, of the One Billion Rising campaign against sexual violence. (www.facebook.com/1milyalevehaiti. In 2013-14 d'Adesky also began reporting on the global gender and human rights emergencies and working with women's groups in East Africa. She cofounded ACT UP Against Ebola, an offshoot of ACT UP, to share the lessons of the AIDS movement with the growing global response to Ebola. (www.facebook.com/actupagainstebola)

Bibliography

Filmography

Awards

Nominations

Biographical Subject:

References and notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Moving Mountains". Mother Jones. 2004-07-13. Archived from the original on 6 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-01.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Awards of Courage: Anne-christine d'Adesky : Honoring with Pride 2000 Honoree". Amfar.org. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
  3. ↑ "Haiti: Under the Bone". .webster.edu. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
  4. ↑ "Moving Mountains: The Race to Treat Global AIDS". TheBody.com. 2010-11-20. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
  5. ↑ "Pills Profits Protest - filmmakers". Outcast Films. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Anne-Christine d'Adesky". amfAR. Retrieved 2008-03-01.
  7. ↑ "Anne-Christine d'Adesky". IMDb. Retrieved 2013-12-01.
  8. ↑ "A Brief History". Lesbian Avengers. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
  9. ↑ "Greenwich Village History | Lesbian Avengers' Button". Gvh.aphdigital.org. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
  10. ↑ Lesbian Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia - Google Books. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
  11. ↑ Heroic Desire: Lesbian Identity and Cultural Space - Sally Munt - Google Books. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
  12. ↑ Acts of Gaiety: LGBT Performance and the Politics of Pleasure - Sara Warner - Google Books. Books.google.com. 2012-10-26. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
  13. ↑ AIDS and American Apocalypticism: The Cultural Semiotics of an Epidemic - Thomas L. Long - Google Books. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2013-10-04.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "Pills Profits Protest: Chronicle of the Global AIDS Movement". Outcast Films. Archived from the original on 3 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-01.

External links