ENDING the whispering

“Minh was a truck driver in Vietnam. Testing positive in 1999, he told his district health department he wanted to raise awareness among his fellow truck drivers. He is now head of the Friend-to-Friend Club, a men’s peer support group.”

Setting examples
One example is in Yunnan, in China’s mountainous south-west, location of that country’s first, heroin-driven, HIV outbreak. “We supported self-help groups,” says Gardiner. “and helped outcast PWAs get communal housing so they could live with each other. It took the Red Cross quite some time to get the confidence of all the local authorities.”

Another country where the Red Cross lent big support was in Cambodia, where they helped local activist Bunthy Sok (see Positive Nation, PN 83) maintain his organisation.
The fact that the organisation flies the Red Crescent, too, means that it has access into conservative Muslim states. In Iran - yes, Iran - no less than one million volunteers helped distribute an HIV awareness leaflet.
And in Syria President Hafez al-Assad recently appeared on national TV to give a prize to a student who made an Aids awareness poster based on the Red Cross’s campaign.
Stars against Stigma
This is the other part of the Truth Against Aids campaign. The Red Cross explicitly recognises the vital value of celebrity - of getting famous people on board as Campaign Ambassadors. In small, hierarchical states, this can only be the head of state, or a close relative. In Panama, it is a local rock star. In Thailand, it’s Miss Thailand Universe.

“When Mrs M M of Cameroon, a senior government official, publicly announced her HIV status, she received support from her superiors and colleagues and her local HIV organisation. It agreed to pay for her antiretroviral drugs and is doing the same for all workers who make the request.”

UNAIDS’ Live and Let Live campaign
UNAIDS, as a United Nations +Red Cross - and is surprisingly strapped for cash, to (though