Stigma against HIV and AIDS is still very much prevalent in our society. Whether you’re in the Philippines or not, people infected with the disease always face judgment and discrimination. Oftentimes the stigma brought by AIDS and HIV stems from the lack of knowledge. We are often scared to touch, talk to, or mingle with people who are infected with the disease.
HIV and AIDS are not easily transmitted. First and foremost, the public must learn how the dreaded disease is transmitted – one can only get it through blood transfusion with a person who has the disease, through contact with blood, sexual fluids, and breast milk. These bodily fluids must come into contact with a mucous membrane or be directly injected into the bloodstream for a person to get infected.
Last year, Grupo de Incentivo a Vida in Brazil launched a powerful campaign featuring HIV positive posters. Every poster contains a drop of blood from an HIV-positive individual. Since HIV can’t live for more than an hour outside a human host, the posters are completely safe and harmless. The campaign tries to put an end to the stigma that surrounds HIV and AIDS. They’re trying to send out the message to the world that HIV and AIDS carriers are not to be feared, that they are individuals just like you and me, and the only difference is that they have the dreaded disease in their veins. The posters aim to show that it’s okay to accept HIV and AIDS carriers to our society and that the surrounding stigma should be abolished. It is indeed a lovely world where one can live in a prejudice-free society.
In the Philippines, the rate of HIV cases has been increasing in the past few years. A lot of organizations are trying to put the issue to rest and help individuals living with the disease. Last year, Grupo de Incentivo a Vida worked with Faustine Luell Tupas Angeles, a person living with HIV, to bring the Brazilian HIV campaign to the Philippines. Faustine and volunteers of International AIDS Candlelight Memorial gave birth to a cycling team named Pedal for HIV. Faustine is leading the team and he has with him the poster that carries his blood.
The posters carry messages that explain how HIV is transmitted and it is made with a drop of blood donated by a person living with HIV (PLHIV). The HIV-Positive Poster campaign has won international awards such as the Bronze Lion at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival and Press Category globally and was first released in the Philippines by Pedal for HIV, in partnership with GIV – Life Support Group. Tour de Pilipinas will be travelling to key sites together with two representatives from the Brazil-based GIV – Life Support Group to increase visibility of the HIV Positive Posters, provide information about the disease, and to reduce HIV stigma and discrimination.
The campaign already rolled out its Banaue leg last February and is set to be propagated in Cebu this March, then Boracay and Iloilo.
Tour de Pilipinas is organized in partnership with The Red Whistle, an HIV awareness campaign that uses the arts and social media in its advocacy to normalize HIV and AIDS. For more information about Pedal for HIV, follow pedalforHIV on Facebook, and @pedalforHIV on Twitter or visit www.pedal-for-HIV.org.