[procaare] HCC:Post Conference discussion -26

[Insight Initiative Team <insight@hdnet.org>]

HCC: Post Conference discussion - 26
- Nenet L. Ortega, Philippines
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Dear Colleagues,

Facilitating programs to combat or address stigma within the context of home and community
care is really a big rally and role for anyone.

Finding solutions to address this is not as easy as one can think of. It actually involves
many brains and putting all the ideas together to come up with a doable strategy.

At the Chiang Mai Conference, during free times in between assignments, I usually found
time to meet with HIV+ delegates, care givers and other important key players coming from
other countries. Most of them were at the skills building workshops and break times are
the best time to mingle with them. Conversations with them were very meaningful because
one can find some feasible solutions to some issues and concerns like stigma.

Here are some of the different approaches and strategies to address stigma which I learnt
during these discussions:

1.It is ideal that AIDS programs include people living with HIV and AIDS to be part of the
planning and implementing team. This way you work from inside out, immersing non-positive
people with positives and learning both ways on how to deal with it. This promotes the
GIPA principle and UNGASS as well.

2.AIDS programmes should include positive people in the education component who can be
speakers and lecturers and facilitators. Positive people can give testimonials on how they
deal with HIV and what it is to be HIV positive. Part of the testimonial should include
how positive and non-positives can work together, roles and responsibilities of each and
most importantly the 'Speakers' (Who are HIV positive) should have diverse backgrounds.
Meaning there should be someone is a housekeeper and became positive, a student or an
adolescent, a grandfather, a grandmother, a mother, etc. Persons giving testimonials
should not highlight on how they got the infection, it is no longer important to know but
rather put emphasis on the psycho social aspect of the disease and how it affects the
families, communities, societies and country as a whole.

In terms of coming out and giving public speeches, a book developed by Susan Paxton of
APN+ titled "Lifting the Burden of Secrecy" can help positive people develop their skill
and make them capable of developing and doing public speeches and testimonials.

3.Deviate from the usual norm of creating a special place for HIV positives but rather a
'common ground' for people regardless of their HIV status, they can be infected, a care
giver, a mother, in fact everyone. For instance in health care settings, a clinic where
everyone can drop by for medical needs and not necessary to disclose HIV status, meaning
anyone can come in, sex industry workers, drivers, teachers. The approach is holistic.
creating special places is tantamount to labeling or trying to tell people that this
clinic or place is just for positive people or a clinic for sex workers, etc. A good
example of this is the COMMON ground project in Atlanta USA, and the HOME project of the
Remedios AIDS Foundation Philippines

4.Developing reading materials where there are stories about lives of positive people.
This may help educate people about the disease how it affects people. It like trying to
convey a message of talking about the disease and not the people with the disease.
Thailand had produced some reading material of this nature.

These are just some of the insights I gained from the delegates at the Chiang Mai
Conference.


Nenet L. Ortega
Remedios AIDS Foundation
HDN Key Correspondent
Manila
Philippines
Email: nenetgem@yahoo.com

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The Insight Initiative Project is managed by Health & Development Networks (HDN) in
collaboration with the Thailand Red Cross Society, the World Health Organization and the
Royal Thailand Government, with financial support from AusAid and UNAIDS.

For more information about this project (the 'Insight Initiative'), visit the HDN website
at: http://www.hdnet.org

Fifth International Conference on Home and Community Care for Persons Living with HIV/AIDS
Chiang Mai, Thailand - 17-20 December 2001
Website: http://www.hiv2001.com


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