Nepalese Advocate Awarded Ralph Stone Award

Oct. 7, 2005—CEDPA presented Nepalese AIDS advocate Chhiring Doka Sherpa with the Ralph Upson Stone award for her commitment to providing care, support and treatment for HIV infected women in Nepal.

“As a grassroots organization leader, this award empowers me to work more effectively in HIV/AIDS," Sherpa said. "We women can make a difference and make this work happen peacefully.”

She plans to use the monetary award to involve more Nepalese women in fighting HIV/AIDS.

In 2004, Sherpa founded the organization Sneha Samaj, “community of love,” in Kathmandu, Nepal for HIV infected women. Like many women across the globe, most of the women Sherpa helps have experienced ostracism from their families and communities.

Sherpa was one of a dozen women’s advocates who joined CEDPA for a month-long Women Lead in the Fight against HIV/AIDS workshop in Washington, DC from September 12 to October 7.

CEDPA established the award in 1998 in memory of CEDPA Training Director Ralph Stone. The leadership of each awardee reflects Stone's legacy as a catalyst for global change.

Past recipients from Zimbabwe, Nepal and Senegal have used the monetary award to expand the work of a women's resource center, improve reproductive health awareness and expand HIV/AIDS prevention activities.

Read more about the WomenLead program.

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