Tras ser invitado por el gobierno tailandés, el director ejecutivo de ONUSIDA, Michel Sidibé, se encuentra esta semana en Tailandia para evaluar los progresos de la respuesta al sida y visitar diversos proyectos con el fin de ver con más claridad de qué manera están mejorando la vida de las personas los esfuerzos de prevención y tratamiento del VIH.

En el día de hoy, Sidibé ha celebrado una reunión en Bangkok con asociados de la sociedad civil de la región. En la reunión con los asociados nacionales y regionales de la sociedad civil se debatió cómo colaborar más estrechamente para ampliar la respuesta al sida.

Durante su visita, Sidibé se reunirá con el Primer Ministro y con los ministros de Salud Pública, del Interior y de Asuntos Exteriores. Tailandia es considerada como un líder visionario en la respuesta al sida, especialmente en lo que respecta a ampliar los servicios de prevención de la transmisión maternoinfantil del VIH. Este país también tiene una gran experiencia en el asesoramiento y las pruebas del VIH y en los servicios de salud sexual y reproductiva destinados a jóvenes, uno de los temas que Sidibé debatirá en detalle con el ministro de Salud Pública.

A finales de la semana Sidibé visitará el complejo turístico de Pattaya, donde se está realizando un proyecto de prevención del VIH que pretende mejorar la salud de los hombres, mujeres y transexuales tailandeses que mantienen relaciones sexuales con turistas a cambio de dinero. Pattaya, que una vez fue un tranquilo pueblo pesquero, es ahora un imán para el “turismo sexual”, que atrae a personas de todo el mundo.

Sidibé finalizará su visita oficial dirigiéndose a los líderes asiáticos en la inauguración del Foro de dirigentes de Asia y el Pacífico.

Esta es la primera visita oficial de Michel Sidibé a Asia como director ejecutivo de ONUSIDA.

Marking World AIDS Day, UN staff from the Asia Pacific region launched a “UN Cares” regional programme yesterday in Bangkok.

Robert Sutherland, representative of UN Plus in Asia and the Pacific, delivered a speech at the launch in which he acknowledged his appreciation of the leadership of UN agencies in delivering on AIDS, and appealed for even more support for creating an environment free of stigma and discrimination within UN.

After the lighting of two red candles – which according to Asian tradition marks a beginning – the UN Under Secretary-General and Executive Secretary ESCAP, Ms. Noeleen Heyzer delivered her address. She stressed the role of a coordinated “one UN” to ensure that the UN Secretary-General’s commitment to UN Cares is realized in the region. She said, “This year’s World AIDS Day theme ‘Lead, Empower, Deliver’ allows us to reflect on our roles as UN leaders. With this theme, let us pledge to contribute to our own staff welfare when it comes to HIV and AIDS by ensuring time and support needed to meet a specific set of ten minimum standards of UN Cares by the end of 2011.”

On the occasion, the UN Cares Asia-Pacific Regional Coordinator, Dr Lazeena Muna-McQuay was introduced. Dr Muna-McQuay is jointly hosted by UNFPA, ESCAP and UNAIDS RST.

Two UN Cares videos were screened during the programme including the speech of Secretary-General during the official launch of global UN Cares programme and the “voices of support from the field”.

The launch closed with a commitment, as iterated by the Secretary-General, to make UN Cares ten Minimum Standards achieved by all UN agencies by the year 2011.

UN Cares

The UN Cares programme has been developed through interagency consultation between UNAIDS Cosponsors and other. It is a single harmonized programme available to UN system personnel and their families in all entities and all duty stations, designed to help them to access their rights defined in the 1991 United Nations HIV/AIDS Personnel Policy and in the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work and recognize their individual responsibilities related to HIV. The UN Cares global programme was launched by the Secretary-General in May this year in New York.

El 1 de diciembre de 2006 el ONUSIDA se unió a una amplia gama de asociados de las Naciones Unidas y de Tailandia para organizar el Día Mundial del Sida con una iniciativa innovadora.

Además de acoger la celebración, Tailandia captó la atención mundial al intentar crear la cadena de preservativos más larga del mundo.

A finales de marzo llegó la confirmación: con 2.715 metros de largo, la cadena estableció un nuevo Guinness World Record™.

La elaboración de la cadena de preservativos más larga del mundo fue uno de los acontecimientos del “Condom Chain of Life Festival”, una celebración única en el Día Mundial del Sida, celebrada en el Lumpini Park, en Bangkok. El festival fue preparado por la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura (UNESCO) en Bangkok en colaboración con la Cruz Roja tailandesa, PLAN Tailandia, el ONUSIDA y diversas ONG locales, como parte de los esfuerzos para promover la aceptabilidad de los preservativos, enfatizar la necesidad de mantener relaciones sexuales más seguras y pedir que se fortalezcan las políticas nacionales para ampliar el acceso al tratamiento, la atención y el apoyo para las personas que viven con el VIH o se ven afectadas por el virus.

El Senador Mechai Viravaidya, Representante Especial del ONUSIDA conocido por sus innovadores esfuerzos de prevención en Tailandia, dirigió la elaboración de la cadena.

Desde el siguiente enlace se puede acceder a la entrevista que www.unaids.org realizó al Coordinador del ONUSIDA en Tailandia, Patrick Brenny, en la que explica como surgió la idea de batir el récord mundial y su importancia para la respuesta de este país al sida.

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Enlaces:

Escuchar la entrevista con el Cordinador del ONUSIDA en Tailandia (mp3, 3 MB)(en inglés)
Leer el comunicado de prensa de la UNESCO sobre el récord mundial de la cadena de preservativos más larga del mundo (en inglés)

De izq. a dcha.: Joana Merlin-Scholtes, Coordinadora Residente de las Naciones Unidas y Representante Residente del PNUD en Tailandia, el Dr. Peter Piot, Director Ejecutivo del ONUSIDA y Kim Hak-Su, Secretario General Adjunto y Secretario Ejecutivo de la CESPAP, el Día Internacional de la Mujer, 2007, celebrado en el Centro de Conferencias de las Naciones Unidas, Bangkok, Tailandia. 08.03.2007

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De izq. a dcha.: el Dr. Peter Piot, Director Ejecutivo del ONUSIDA, Joana Merlin-Scholtes, Coordinadora Residente de las Naciones Unidas y Representante Residente del PNUD en Tailandia, Kim Hak-Su, Secretario General Adjunto y Secretario Ejecutivo de la CESPAP, Jean D’Cunha, Directora del Programa Regional del UNIFEM (para el este y el sureste asiático) y Thelma Kay, Directora de la División de Nuevos Asuntos Sociales, CESPAP, durante la sesión de apertura de la ceremonia para el Día Internacional de la Mujer. Centro de Conferencias de las Naciones Unidas, Bangkok, Tailandia. 08.03.2007

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Kim Hak-Su, Secretario General Adjunto y Secretario Ejecutivo de la CESPAP, durante su discurso de apertura para el Día Internacional de la Mujer, 2007, en el Centro de Conferencias de las Naciones Unidas, Bangkok, Tailandia. 08.03.2007

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El Dr. Peter Piot, Director Ejecutivo del ONUSIDA, durante su discurso para el Día Internacional de la Mujer, 2007, en el Centro de Conferencias de las Naciones Unidas, Bangkok, Tailandia. 08.03.2007

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Fotografía: Daniel Tshin

Enlaces:
Leer el discurso del Director Ejecutivo del ONUSIDA: Abordar el sida y las cuestiones de género: un requisito obligatorio (pdf, 29.33Kb) (en inglés)

Sri-Lankan journalists reflect on media role in reducing stigma and discrimination

The media has a key role to play in raising awareness on HIV and reducing AIDS-related stigma and discrimination, even in countries with low HIV prevalence rates. 

This summer, a group of Sri Lankan journalists joined a special UNAIDS workshop in Bangkok to better examine the powerful role the media can play within the AIDS response. Despite relatively low levels of HIV infection within Sri Lanka, the country is nevertheless at real risk of a potential epidemic. Increasing rates of sexually transmitted infections, high levels of internal and external migration, apparent increases in the numbers of sex workers and low use of condoms, all combine to put people at greater risk of HIV. The media in Sri Lanka therefore plays a key role in ensuring that HIV stays on the political agenda. It is also a major vehicle for prevention messages to inform people how to protect themselves and reduce the stigma and discrimination associated with AIDS.

The three day intensive Media Exposure Tour, organized by UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Asia Pacific, brought together 12 journalists from Sri Lankan print, radio and television media and four Government representatives from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education to examine the situation in their country and how they could best put their media skills to work to help get ahead of the epidemic and combat discrimination.

Prior to the workshop, only two of the 16 participants had ever met a person living with HIV and most of them said they had limited experience in HIV and AIDS issues.

“We wanted to provoke the participants to reflect on their own behaviours and attitudes and on what each of them can do to make a difference,” said Mechai Viravaidya, founder of the Thai Population and Community Development Association and a resource person in this initiative. In his welcoming address he urged all participants to “think outside the box and challenge societal norms to break down barriers.”

The tour started with an assessment of what media can do to make a difference in the AIDS response, which included: building awareness on HIV in all groups, socializing, reducing stigma and discrimination, improving education in schools and engaging politicians.

Over the three days participants reviewed the journalistic ethical guidelines coined as RESPECT (Responsible, Ethical, Sensitive, Participative, Empowering, Compassion and Trust) and also had a chance to learn from and discuss with a number of regional journalists and artists who presented their own experience and work on HIV and AIDS.
The programme provided the journalists with a variety of rich experiences engaging with a range of people from organizations representing different aspects of the response to HIV in Thailand and the region. They met with Frika, a young Indonesian activist living with HIV and visited a number of centers in Bangkok such as the Injecting Drug Users treatment centre and the Mercy center. They also learned about the empowerment of sex workers at the Empower office located in an area of Bangkok known for commercial sex work.

“I am not the same journalist who came from Sri Lanka,” said TV producer Nirosha Damayanthi to describe the impact of the Tour on her. “Hearing how Frika turned a new leaf in her life created in me the urge to make a difference in the field of HIV and AIDS.”

Less than two weeks after the end of the Tour, articles on HIV and AIDS began to appear in Sri Lanka media telling Frika’s story about overcoming stigma and discrimination from her own family to become the voice of People living with HIV in Asia and disseminating hard facts about the spread of the disease and the importance of respect and empathy towards the most vulnerable people in society.

Tour participant Ramani Prematillake Bogoda wrote: “people living with HIV should not be cornered or abandoned. They too are entitled to the rights and benefits of society.”

Another journalist from the tour, Buddhi Jayawardene from the Health Education Bureau, has started a weekly live radio discussion on HIV to build on the momentum.

“Speaking about the disease is the first step towards reducing the stigma around people living with HIV and preventing new infections,” said David Bridger from the UNAIDS Regional Office in Bangkok.

“The media plays a critical role in breaking the silence,” he added.

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The Bangkok Media Exposure Tour is an activity of the National HIV/AIDS Prevention Project in Sri Lanka, supported by the World Bank. The UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Asia and the Pacific provided support in developing the program and hosting the Media Exposure Tour.
The 8th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific will be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka 19-23 August 2007.

Heralded by UNAIDS as an example of ‘best practice’, a project that offers small loans to enable people living with HIV set up businesses is helping break down stigma and discrimination in Thailand.

When married mother Nang Noi was told she had HIV three years ago, the fear of the disease and of the social rejection that might go with it was overwhelming. “I cried for five days straight. I did not think I could go on,” she said.

But through her own personal courage, the support of family and friends, and her involvement in a project that has given her the opportunity to set up two small businesses with her sister, Nang Noi has found ways to face her fears and counter AIDS-related stigma and discrimination.

Nang Noi set up two small businesses – selling dried seafood snacks and offering traditional Thai massage – using a micro-credit business loan through Thailand’s biggest non-governmental organization, the Population and Community Development Association (PDA).

Funded by the Pfizer Foundation in Thailand, the PDA project – entitled the ‘Positive Partnership Project’ - offers loans to partnerships of people living with HIV and a ‘’buddy’’(often a friend or family member who is not living with HIV) to set up small business ventures.

As part of the terms of the project, each ‘buddy’ undertakes to be a community ambassador for people living with HIV. ‘Buddies’ talk to friends and neighbors about the realities of HIV, trying to replace fear around HIV with facts.

‘There is a great deal of stigma against people living with HIV - even when it comes to bank loans. A widespread – and unfounded - notion existed in Thailand that people living with HIV wouldn’t be able to pay back loans,’’ said PDA founder, Senator Mechai Viravaidya.

“We felt this theory could and should be tested.”

“We realized that to really make a difference, we needed to tackle the need for people living with HIV to sustain their livelihoods and to break down stigma simultaneously,’’ he added.

Since the official launch of the project in January 2004, around 750 partnerships running micro businesses such as food-selling, motorcycle repair and craft-making have started up, supported by PDA centers in north, northeast and central Thailand. By October 2005, PPP loan repayment rates of 84% exceeded the rate of repayments within the general Thai banking system.

‘’Nobody is more motivated to succeed than the people who are receiving these loans,’’ said Senator Mechai.

Taking charge of their professional lives, people living with HIV involved in the project report feeling an increase in respect shown towards them by others, and a growth in their own feelings of self-respect.

And surveys of community members in PPP project areas indicated that ten months after the loans schemes began ‘anxiety levels’ around (or fear of) AIDS and stigma against people living with HIV had dropped from around 47% to around 14%.

‘’In the beginning our neighbors were afraid to buy Nang Noi’s food. But after I talked to them, and explained the realities of HIV they slowly began to change and now regularly buy from us,’ said Nang Noi’s sister and PPP partner Ngeun.

Patrick Brenny, UNAIDS Country Coordinator for Thailand, underlined the vital role the project plays for Thailand and for UNAIDS work in the country: ‘’Two of the most critical challenges facing persons living with HIV infection in Thailand today are the lack of sustainable livelihoods and the challenges of stigma and discrimination, both of which are priority areas for UNAIDS’ work in Thailand,” he said.

‘”The PPP is an excellent example of addressing the longer-term economic well-being of people living with HIV and their families, while at the same time tackling the community-based stigma and discrimination which hampers the integration of HIV positive individuals and their families into those very same communities,” he explained.
 
“As more and more people living with HIV in Thailand gain access to antiretroviral therapy through the National Health Security Scheme, the importance of the PPP and similar initiatives will grow in order to address both the economic as well as the social- and community-support challenges facing persons living with HIV infection and their families here in Thailand,” said Brenny.

Related links
Population and Community Development Association

The governing body of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) met in Chiang Mai from 23-25 April for the 22nd Meeting of the Programme Coordinating Board (PCB).

Today the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) signed an agreement to tackle HIV among the uniformed services with Thailand’s Minister of Defence, General Chetta Thanajaro and the Minister of Public Health, Mrs. Sudarat Keyuraphan. Focusing on young men and women, all parties will work together to reduce the impact of HIV and increase prevention efforts.

The rate of HIV infection in the Mekong Region is rising faster among women than men. “Lack of attention to women’s rights is fuelling the HIV epidemic,” said Dr Kathleen Cravero, Deputy Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), speaking at the Mekong Leaders’ Consultative Meeting on Women and AIDS on the occasion of International Women’s Day.