Tucked away, as we are, in the shadow of the Cathedral, we are often seen as the guys who do HIV Health Promotion for Staffordshire Buddies in the South of the County. But what does this mean in everyday terms?

Well, we undertake sexual health promotion work with gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, also known as HIV Prevention. It might sound strange, but what it means is that the aim of our work is to prevent the spread of HIV and sexually transmitted infections via a variety of means.

In order to do this we have to be quite creative because, based as we are in South Staffordshire, we have no gay bars or clubs and therefore no captive audience to work with. Much of our work is done by the outreach team of sessional workers who travel around the area providing men with educational and practical materials (such as condoms & lube).

For a lot of the guys we meet, we are the only way in which they can access the materials, support and information they need to help maintain god sexual health.

This is only part of the service though; the outreach workers also act as gatekeepers to a variety of other MESMEN services. These include one-to-one counselling provided by Gary Williams; Social Groups run in towns across South Staffs; the Married Men's Support Group or the Transvestite / Transsexual Support Group. Many of our service users access more than one service as needs change - and we try to change along with them to meet their needs. HIV is a rapidly changing disease - we intend being at the forefront of change ourselves to meet the challenge. Over future editions of Positive Lives we will be focussing on different aspects of these services.

Since MESMEN began we've had a programme of development from the Tamworth Social Group to recent updates to our website. We've consistently offered free condoms and information via our mailing list service - and now it's possible to join up to the revamped Membership List and order online. If you are a man who has sex with men and you live in South Staffs go to: http://freespace.virgin.net/staffs.mesmen/ and sign up.
The website can tell you a lot about the MESMEN Project in addition to holding loads of useful information about HIV and sexual health.

If you don't have Internet access we can be reached on 01543 - 411413. We look forward to hearing from you.

Gary Williams