Sun 20 Nov 2011 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
The sudden departure of the manager of the NZ AIDS Foundation's Burnett Centre is being called "almost the end of an era" and Wayne Otter's contribution to the wellbeing of HIV positive people has been described as "massive." Otter has announced his departure from the NZAF, effective last Friday. Neither he nor the Foundation has been available or able to comment further, although Otter says in an email to friends that he left for health reasons. "It's almost the end of an era," says Bruce Kilmister of HIV-positive people's advocacy and support organisation Body Positive. "We're really sorry to see him go, he made an amazing contribution in keeping the NZAF in touch with the community." HIV positive health advocate and past NZAF chair Michael Stevens says Otter has "been with us through the worst days of of AIDS and made a massive contribution along the way." He says Otter was "centre stage for a lot of people dealing with HIV" throughout the epidemic. You can discuss this New Zealand gay community news story in the GayNZ.com Forum.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Sunday, 20th November 2011 - 4:05pm