where she underscored the extent to which globalization has concentrated media ownership and the dissemination of news in a few hands, and exacerbated the tendency to portray women as sex objects rather than as holistic beings. The summit highlighted a number of ways in which the media was failing in one of its core functions; that of giving voice to the voiceless. The summit ended with a call for greater media diversity in all areas – ownership, content and audiences. MISA also sponsored the gender and media awards held during the gala dinner in Johannesburg. A total of 187 entries in twelve categories with winning pieces ranging from an article on challenges faced in accessing credit to a beauty queen who finds out she is HIV positive. MISA continued to take part in the ongoing campaign of the draft Protocol on Gender and Development that will hopefully be taken to the Heads of State Summit in Lusaka this year. Several meetings took place where MISA was represented and made submissions 4.4 MISA Policy on HIV and AIDS The MISA regional secretariat was tasked by the AGM to put in place an internal HIV/AIDS policy that would be developed for the organization as a whole. The draft policy developed by the staff and the process followed would serve as a model for National Chapters to follow when developing their own policies. The next step would be the roll out of the policy to MISA’s institutional members who are the media houses. In order to carry out this task, it was felt that it was important for the Regional Secretariat staff to first internalize the process before going out to the membership. It was also very important that MISA took the decision to work very closely with HIV positive people as they have first hand information of the disease and are better able to advice on how to deal with the disease in the workplace. In June 2006, the regional secretariat and the MISA Namibia staff took part in a three-day “AIDS and Me” workshop designed to enable staff to address HIV and AIDS in their own lives, and to use this personalization process to come up with the ingredients for an HIV and AIDS policy for the secretariat. Through this process, the staff felt that HIV and AIDS should not be addressed in a vacuum and that the organization’s productivity was closely linked with the health and wellbeing of all staff, and not just those living with and directly affected by HIV and AIDS. The staff therefore agreed to develop an overall Wellness Policy - a major component of which would focus on mitigating the impact of HIV and AIDS within the MISA family. The policy that was finally drafted forms part of the wellness policy that MISA seeks to promote productivity within the organization through the creation of a supportive environment that encourages staff to live healthy and productive lives, both within and outside the workplace. More particularly, the policy recognizes the impacts of HIV and AIDS in southern Africa, and MISA seeks to minimize the medical, social, economic and developmental consequences of the AIDS epidemic on MISA projects and its staff. MISA is committed to addressing HIV and AIDS in a positive, supportive and non-discriminatory manner, with the informed support and co-operation of all employees. Accordingly the policy has been developed to assist management and employees in dealing with HIV and AIDS both within the workplace and their own lives. The impact of the whole internalization process has led to MISA staff taking deliberate efforts to learn more about the disease and how to protect themselves better. The staff have had meetings focusing on the medical aid schemes Annual Report 2006 35