Nominations are accepted from December 1st, 2009 until February 28th, 2010.

The call for nominations for the 2010 Red Ribbon Award is now open.  As in the past, the award honors and recognizes exceptional grassroots leadership in responding to the AIDS epidemic. Nominations are accepted from December 1st, 2009 until February 28th, 2010.

The red ribbon is a global symbol in the movement to address AIDS. The Red Ribbon Award, presented every two years at the International AIDS Conference, is designed to honor and celebrate community based organizations for their outstanding initiatives that show leadership in reducing the spread and impact of AIDS. The award is a joint effort of the UNAIDS family and as such, this year it will place particular emphasis on the organization's newly approved global priority areas of action.

Twenty-five community organizations will be selected through a community-led process and will be invited to attend the XVIIIth International AIDS Conference in Vienna from 18-23 July, 2010. The Red Ribbon Award winners will have an opportunity to showcase their work at the Conference and host their Community Dialogue Space in the heart of the Global Village. All 25 community organizations will receive $5,000 each. Five of these communities will receive special recognition and an additional $15,000.

Celebrating Community Leadership
Community based organizations lie at the heart of the response to the AIDS epidemic – displaying extraordinary courage, resilience and strength in addressing one of the greatest challenges of our time. Using creative and sustainable ways to promote prevention and provide treatment, care, and support to people living with HIV and demonstrating innovation in the face of stigma and discrimination, these examples of community leadership are showing us in practical terms how to reverse a global epidemic – one community at a time.

This year a special recognition Award will be presented to an organization whose cross-cutting approach jointly addresses AIDS and MDGs at the community level in one or more of the following categories:

• Ensure that that people living with HIV receive treatment
• Support HIV prevention, treatment and care programmes for people who use drugs
• Remove punitive policies and laws, stigma and discrimination that block effective AIDS responses and marginalize key populations (men who have sex with men, transgender people, sex workers and prisoners)
• Stop violence against women and girls and promote gender equality
• Enhance social support for those affected by HIV, including orphans and vulnerable children