Conference seeks to end stigma, discrimination of AIDS

For the past three days, community activists, government officials, and representatives of local non-governmental organizations have gathered at the Princess Hotel to discuss the violation of basic human rights being suffered by persons living with HIV/AIDS and those affected by the deadly disease. With facilitators from the Latin American and Caribbean Council of AIDS Service Organizations (LACCASO), the main thrust of the conference is to promote an understanding of the negative impact of stigma and discrimination experienced by the men, women, children and their families in Belize. According to director of the Alliance Against AIDS, Rodel Beltran Perera, turning a blind eye to the current state of affairs will get us nowhere.

Rodel Beltran Perera, Director, Alliance Against AIDS
“If you want to find out the status, you want to find out your status on HIV and go to a clinic, countrywide, pick any and the services are inadequate, that is the beginning of discrimination and stigmatisation. You are not getting the right information, you are not getting the right treatment, you are not asked the proper questions, you are not provided with counselling; counselling is so important. You must take care of my mental health if you are going to find out issues, certain conditions of my health. And so, we need to ensure that the beginning of the equation is adequately placed so that people from the beginning are comfortable with that new information that can change their lives, can change their behaviour, so from the beginning that is of utmost importance.”

Edgar Carrasco, Regional Secretary, LACCASO
“There is a tradition approach on public health, which is recognised that prevention is an obligation, a duty of the state, of the government. But now, AIDS challenges our society and puts on the table a different concept; we have to deal with prevention and treatment. And this is part of the whole concept of human rights and also related to this workshop on stigma and discrimination.”

This week’s workshop is part of a regional project entitled, “Community based advocacy and networking to scale up HIV prevention alongside expanding treatment access.”