Justin's HIV Journal

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Addis Beza #LinkUp



Addis Beza #LinkUp

International HIV/AIDS Alliance
Prepared by Battenhall, 22 November 2013

Addis Beza: Helping Prevent HIV Through Dance
Today's young people are the first generation that has never known a world without HIV and AIDS. In Ethiopia, where more than half of the population is under the age of 24, cultural attitudes among the older generation towards sexual health issues are making it difficult for young people to arm themselves with the knowledge they need to keep themselves safe.

But one enterprising group of youngsters in Addis Ababa, the BEZA Anti-AIDS youth group, are determined to use their combined talents for music and dance to get messages about HIV prevention across to the public and their peers. Members of the youth group, all aged between 15 and 20, have founded a dance troupe called Addis Beza, meaning “to live for others”. The troupe perform regularly in popular public spots around Addis Ababa, using the occasion to hand out information leaflets and to encourage people to get tested for HIV free of charge so that they know their status and can be treated accordingly.


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The mobile testing clinics are organised by the Organization for Social Services for AIDS (OSSA), Ethiopia’s largest NGO working on HIV, and attract up to a thousand people over the course of five days. If somebody is found to be HIV positive, they are then referred on to a local health facility for access to treatment, care and support.

At the youth club centre, as well as training long hours to learn dance moves, members take it in turns to offer a drop in counselling service for young people and to give out free condoms. Habtegoregies Hailu, better known as Habte, is the club’s chairman, and is determined to help them navigate through their teenage years.


The troupe practising their dance moves
Photo credit: duckrabbit\International HIV/AIDS Alliance

“We’re going to save ourselves first, and then become a shelter for others who need protection,” he says. “This is the start not the end for us, helping protect young people from HIV.”

The Youth Group’s Debates

The club’s regular debate session is always well attended by members and this month’s topic - what is the right age to start having sex – drew quite a crowd. At these debates, opinion is often fiercely divided, but everybody gets the chance to express their view.

Club chairman Habte’s offering sees him open up the floor to personal opinion and thought. “How much control we do we have over ourselves, over our bodies? Marriage is not necessarily a timetable for having sex. It’s ok to experience, but we must be careful. It’s ok to jump in and enjoy life but do we take responsibility for our actions? Enjoy life but go and get information on how to enjoy it responsibly and carefully.”

Charismatic troupe leader Samson, 17, had this to say: “We have to have sex, we strongly have to. Because the Bible says to be reproductive – so we have to fulfil God’s word and use our body.  What is it for otherwise?”

Wendimagegne is more hesitant: “I’m waiting until marriage, because otherwise we won’t be able to handle the consequences. We’re not knowledgeable enough at 16.”

Samson and his story

Samson is typical of the kind of young person that the club aims to attract. Now a model student taking an evening class in hotel management, he was once branded a troublemaker and had a history of petty stealing. Brought up by his grandmother, his father died when he was a baby and he has no real knowledge of his mother. Remembering when he was younger, he says: “We got into fights with gangs from other villages and had problems with the police.”


Samson standing in front of a mobile HIV-testing clinic
Photo credit: duckrabbit\International HIV/AIDS Alliance

“I feel I have benefitted greatly from joining Addis Beza,” he continues. “The main benefit is a change in my life. Although I joined for the dance troupe, I’ve learnt lots of things. I did not have self-awareness until now and it has helped me to teach other people what I have learned. There is a big difference between the old me and the new me.”

Samson has seen first hand the tragedy that HIV can hold for young people if they do not have the knowledge they need to understand how to manage the virus. His friend Abel took his own life on discovering that he was positive, too frightened to reveal his diagnosis to his family for fear of being rejected.

“If you catch HIV it means that everyone will discriminate against you,” Samson says.  “People will think that you can’t live with anyone, that it is an alien disease. [Before joining the youth group] the opinion I had is that it’s not even possible to eat together.  Our families used to say that it's a punishment from God.”

“I did not have any knowledge and didn't know its methods of transmission, but I have learned to practise safe sex, when I should start having sex, what I need to do after sex if a woman gets pregnant.”

With young people aged 15-24 accounting for 40% of new HIV infections globally, Samson and his fellow dancers are playing their part as duty bearing citizens. “I want to make Ethiopian culture known to the world,” he says proudly.  “Here we say that we want to be the light for others.”

The troupe performing in the piazza
Photo credit: duckrabbit\International HIV/AIDS Alliance

The International HIV/AIDS Alliance and Link Up

Ethiopia is one of five countries currently being targeted by the Alliance and its partners through Link Up, an initiative that aims to improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights of more than one million young people living with and affected by HIV.

Over the course of the next three years, Link Up will reach more than one million young people aged 15-24 by implementing tailored HIV and sexual and reproductive health interventions to increase uptake and access to services and reduce unintended pregnancies, new HIV infections and HIV-related maternal mortality. In Ethiopia the initiative aims to reach 140,000 young people to improve their sexual health.

What can you do to help?

Show your support to Addis Beza, the Link Up programme and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance by:

1.    Sharing the dance troupe’s story (Click to Tweet) (Share on Facebook) #LinkUp
2.    Keeping up to date with the work being carried out through Link Up at www.link-up.org
3.    Follow the International HIV/AIDS Alliance on Twitter @theaidsalliance and on Facebook

Thank you for taking the time to read about Addis BEZA today. It means a lot to everyone involved in this project.

Momina’s Story #LinkUp




Momina’s Story #LinkUp
International HIV/AIDS Alliance
Prepared by Battenhall, 22 November 2013

Meet Momina

Momina is a 22 year old single mother of two who lives in the city of Adama in central Ethiopia and was diagnosed as living with HIV three years ago. Although she wears a smile, sadness is etched across her face when she talks about her younger son, Yerosa. Born HIV positive, he is now three but Momina knows very little of his life save for the occasional photos she is sent by the American family who adopted him. Momina took the agonising decision to give him up for adoption in the hope that he would be able to receive medical treatment.    


Photo credit: Benjamin Chesterton\duckrabbit\International HIV/AIDS Alliance

In telling her story today, Momina hopes that she might help other young women just like her, to know how they can protect themselves from contracting HIV and get the care and support they need through projects like Link Up being led by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.

Momina’s Story

When Momima was a teenager, she left her family home as she was afraid that her parents would marry her off to an older man as they did with her older sister - who later died of AIDS. After falling pregnant with her first child Rapira, and without the support of her parents, she was forced to move from community to community, taking temporary jobs where she could, to try to provide food and shelter for her son.

“I don’t want my child to starve or get hurt,” says Momina.


Photo credit: Benjamin Chesterton\duckrabbit\International HIV/AIDS Alliance

“There are times when I feed my child and I do not eat at all. I sometimes come home late from work, there are times when I wake him up and feed him because I don’t want him to sleep on an empty belly.”

Without life being tough enough already, three years ago Momina was diagnosed as living with HIV. At that time she had no idea that she was pregnant and subsequently she was not able to receive the treatment needed to protect her unborn child from onward transmission of the virus. When her youngest son, Yerosa was just four months old, Momina learned that he was HIV positive and took the agonising decision to give him up to a family in the US with the hope that he would receive the medical care he needed.

“I convinced myself that it’s better to see my child well. If he had not been seriously ill, I would have not given him away. I would have fought until the end. I am praying for him to be well wherever he is.”

Living with HIV

Determined not to be defined by her HIV status, even when her own mother will not allow her into her family home for fear that she might infect her siblings, Momina remains candid about her condition with friends and colleagues. But in a country where HIV stigma and discrimination still prevail, her openness sometimes costs her and she is presently between jobs.

“I do not let myself down because I live with HIV and have my own objectives.”

Photo credit: Benjamin Chesterton\duckrabbit\International HIV/AIDS Alliance

“I want to continue my education and qualify as a nurse. I have always had a passion and love for the profession and I want to serve people like me, people living with the virus. I would be happy if I could do that. My biggest aim is to get educated, get a job and live my own life but at the same time I don’t want to cry over split milk”

Momina is assisted with access to HIV treatment and care by Ethiopia’s largest NGO working on HIV, the Organization for Social Services for AIDS (OSSA), who in turn is supported by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance. Every fortnight she attends a support group meeting organised by OSSA where she and other members of her community living with HIV meet to share their experiences.

OSSA have also helped contribute to her son Rapira’s annual school fee. Momina is determined to see that he gets a good education.

Photo credit:Benjamin Chesterton\duckrabbit\International HIV/AIDS Alliance

“I wish for him something much greater than I had,” she says with feeling.
“I hope he can go all the way and graduate which I was unable to do.”

In another world, life for Momina and her family could have turned out so very differently. If she had known how to protect herself against HIV. If she had gone through proper antenatal care when she was pregnant with Yerosa. If she had not felt compelled to run away from home for fear of early marriage. If she was able to work freely without worrying about becoming a target for discrimination.

“I would like people to see me a strong person,” she smiles. “I know that there is strength in me; I got that strength from the life I have had. I want young people of my age to be strong and to have the strength to face and overcome challenges.”

The International HIV/AIDS Alliance and Link Up

Ethiopia is one of five countries currently being targeted by the Alliance and its partners through Link Up, an initiative that aims to improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights of more than one million young people living with and affected by HIV.

Over the course of the next three years, Link Up will reach more than one million young people aged 15-24 by implementing tailored HIV and sexual and reproductive health interventions to increase uptake and access to services and reduce unintended pregnancies, new HIV infections and HIV-related maternal mortality. In Ethiopia the initiative aims to reach 140,000 young people to improve their sexual health.

What can you do to help?

Show your support to Momina, Link Up and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance by:

1.     Sharing Momina’s story (Click to Tweet) (Share on Facebook) #LinkUp
2.     Keeping up to date with the work being carried out through Link Up at www.link-up.org
3.    Follow the International HIV/AIDS Alliance on Twitter @theaidsalliance and on Facebook

Thank you for taking the time to read Momina’s story today. It means a lot to everyone involved in this project.

Justin's HIV Journal: World AIDS Day 2013 HIV/AIDS PSA



I decided to do a little PSA for World AIDS Day 2013. I don't know how I got the idea to even try to pull this off but I tried. The only thing I wish people would take from this is to know your HIV status. It's very hard to want to know your status but the sooner you do the better. Whether it is HIV positive or negative it will be alright. At least now you can take the precautions or continue to take the precautions that you need to protect yourself and others from the HIV virus.

I've had many friends pass away and today I really remember then and take a moment to sit by myself and ask why did they have to leave this earth so young? I know it's not my fault and I don't feel survivor's guilt at all, but I feel for the world. The world will not know the wonders that many of my friends that have passed away from HIV/AIDS complications could give to it and to their own communities.

Today a lot of people would think that I am out going to a World AIDS Day event, but today I stayed home with my husband and my son. I looked at him today thinking, "man oh man I hope that he is listening to my message and better yet learning from it. I hope that he knows how much I love him and understand why I do, what I do. It is because of him and his friends that I hope for the future and I will do my best, even if it takes my last breath

Justin's HIV Journal: NBC Channel 4 World AIDS Report 2009 3% of DC Residents have HIV/AIDS

Justin's HIV Journal: NBC Channel 4 World AIDS Report 2009 3% of DC Residents have HIV/AIDS 





Today I reminisced to when I started out as an AIDS activist.  This was my first news interview and I couldn’t believe I found it after all these years.  I was actually looking back on some old photos of friends and x-boyfriends that passed away.  I found this news interview and it was when I was about 29, which was about 5 years ago.  Now I look at my life now and I didn’t think I would be married legally and I didn’t think I would be a father.  I didn’t think that I would’ve come out with a children’s book about HIV or have done HIV activism as deeply as I have now.  

Sometimes I think about my death and I wonder if my son will know about the work I’ve done.  I wonder if he knows about how serious HIV/AIDS really is.  I know several generations before me probably said the same things about me when I was “growing up gay”.  Some of them are still around probably shaking their heads at some in my generations that shrug their shoulders at HIV/AIDS.  We will never know until time tells us the truth and only truth can come with time. 


 

THE HEALTH SHOW Papi Chulo Radio World AIDS Day 2013

 
 
TONIGHT @ 7:30pm ET / 4:30pm PT on Papi Chulo RADIO (www.PapiChuloRADIO.com
) -- Tune in for a special World AIDS Day EVENT. "The HEALTH Show: WORLD AIDS DAY 2013 - Living with HIV".

A panel is HIV/AIDS activists and advocates gathered to discuss living with HIV.

The panel includes:
-- Marvell Terry (HIV/AIDS Activist, The Executive Director of The Red Door Foundation in Memphis, TN and an Organizing Committee member for The Young Black Gay Leadership Initiative)
-- Justin B. Terry Smith (HIV Advice Columnist, Author and Activist)
-- Patrick Ingram (HIV/AIDS Activist, Committee Member of The National Minority AIDS Council’s HIV Leadership Working Group for their Health Literacy and Wellness Initiative, and member of The Youth Advisory Committee for The National Minority AIDS Council’s Youth Initiative to End HIV/AIDS in America)

Catch a special ENCORE of the broadcast Friday, December 6 @ 7:30pm ET / 4:30pm PT.

FOLLOW JUSTIN'S HIV JOURNAL