Mirror our Lives: an insightful publication on AIDS
Finding out that you are HIV positive is a traumatic experience for many persons as life as they know it is over… and although medication has made it possible for them to live longer, the prevailing stigma and discrimination does not make that life much easier. Today some of those persons are speaking out in the hope that others will take heed, protect themselves, and also join the fight against HIV. Kendra Griffith reports from the Bliss.
[Diane Haylock Reading Poem from “Mirroring our Lives…”]
“When I turned thirty-two years of age, I found out my precious child was molested and infected with HIV by my husband. I ended my marriage with my husband immediately, I was devastated. It was one thing for me to be HIV positive but for my precious daughter, this was unbearable.”
Kendra Griffith, Reporting
Those words read by NICH President Diane Haylock were written by an HIV positive woman… it is one of the twelve short stories in a book launched this morning.
Rodel Beltran Perrera, Exec. Dir., Alliance Against AIDS
“It’s stories that need to be heard, need to be contribute to the contribution of stigma and discrimination.”
According to Alliance Against AIDS Executive Director, Rodel Beltran Perrera, Mirroring our Lives was the brainchild of members of its support group. It is a synopsis of their experiences, feelings and observations of life as an HIV positive person in Belize.
Rodel Beltran Perrera
“They are challenged with sharing their stories. They are challenged with going to a clinic and not being able to be open. They are challenged with going into their homes and not sharing with families. It is a wonderful idea that came from them, their hearts and we just facilitated the production of it. We have our support services coordinator, Stephanie Jimenez and she helped them put it together. They sat down and they spoke about it, how to write it. It is in their own words, we didn’t edit it at all. The copies will show that there could a little grammar but we left it lie that because that is their writing. We left it the way they wrote it. It’s an account of what they are going through.”
Diane Haylock, President, NICH
“It allows the people who are infected to speak for themselves.”
Although the writers want their feelings known, they are not yet ready for their identities to be revealed. Beltran hopes that one day that won’t be the case.
Rodel Beltran Perera
“We have great faith that one of these days we will see them come out, but we have to be part of making them feel comfortable with their lives, with their infection.”
Sandra Paredez, Chair, UN Theme Group
“People living with HIV conceal their illness out of fear; fear of rejection by family and friends; fear of job loss; fear of being denied healthcare only to find themselves leading increasingly isolated lives.”
Diane Haylock
“I don’t think there is a single one of us in this country who can behave as if HIV and AIDS have nothing to do with us. HIV and AIDS is everybody’s business and if we look in that mirror we will see somebody who looks exactly like us.”
This morning AAA also unveiled their 2009 calendar which in English, Garifuna, Spanish, Ketchi and Mopan Maya, encourages persons to protect themselves from HIV.
Rodel Beltran Perera
“Prevention messages need to be out there on a daily basis from north to south, east to west. I think that that is an area we need to step up. We have care, we have treatment, it is free, but I think the epidemiological data is frightening for us and I think that we need to step up the message of prevention.”
The calendar will be distributed to schools across the country, as well as along the border with Guatemala. Mirroring our Lives is available from Alliance Against AIDS for twenty dollars.
[Rodel Beltran Perrera reading from Mirroring our Lives…]
“I was a faithful housewife but my husband was not faithful to me. A month later I finally got the courage to take the test and the result came back positive for HIV. I live for my children one day at a time. I no longer write in my diary because it’s not important what I write in there, but what is being written about me in heaven. HIV hurts. It hurts those infected and those affected. Be responsible and don’t wait for someone to protect you… protect yourself. HIV often is not a killer of people, stigma and discrimination is.”
Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.
The funds collected from Mirroring Our Lives will go to assist persons living with HIV. The book was produced in collaboration with LACCASO, HIVOS and OXFAM.
