The East-West Wish Tree is spending its final day in the Global Village at the AIDS2010 conference in Vienna. AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW) brought over 5,000 messages to Vienna from people who took part in the Vienna Express events in 14 countries. During its time in Vienna, the tree has acquired several thousand more from people all over the world. One branch alone holds the following messages:

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Roman Dudnik, Regional Director in Central Asia, AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW).

AIDS2010 is the fifth international AIDS conference that I have attended during my time at AFEW and I am here to raise awareness among the delegates of the HIV situation in Central Asia and the unique cultural and social characteristics of the epidemic in this region.

As an openly gay man who has been HIV positive since 1994, I was also keen to attend the ‘Pre-conference for MSM (men who have sex with men)’, which took place last weekend. The event, organised by the Global Forum for Men Who Have Sex with Men focused on HIV in the MSM population and ran under the slogan ‘Be Heard!’

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This morning, Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria visited the East-West Wish Tree in the Global Village, where he received wishes, demands and messages from participants of the Vienna Express 2010: Towards Universal Access. This month-long campaign through 14 countries of Europe and Central Asia (EECA) was organised by Dutch humanitarian organisation AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW).

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