HIV and AIDS - Background reading
Our position on HIV and AIDS
The scale of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in many of the countries in which
we work, and the particular vulnerability of
poor people and marginalised communities mean
that we have to address the issue of HIV and AIDS if we are to fulfil
our mission to improve the health and well-being of disadvantaged
and vulnerable communities in developing countries.
HIV and AIDS is high on the agenda of all Healthlink Worldwide’s
partner organisations in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and of the communities,
organisations and governments with which they work.
Principles informing our work
Healthlink has been active in the field of HIV and AIDS since 1987. During
this time we have been fortunate to work with committed organisations and
individuals working at all levels of the response, from community to policy.
This experience has supported the development of a number of principles
that inform our HIV and AIDS work. These include:
- A recognition of the tremendous contribution that people living with HIV and AIDS have made and continue to make to HIV and AIDS responses and a commitment to using communication approaches and media to document and share these contributions.
- The promotion of the rights of HIV-positive people, particularly sexual, reproductive, legal, financial and general health rights, including access to appropriate treatment and care.
- A commitment to using communication to reduce and challenge stigma and discrimination associated with HIV and AIDS.
- A recognition of the importance of environment on people’s behaviour and a commitment to communication approaches that support people’s efforts to promote change in their environment.
- A recognition of the cultural aspects of HIV and AIDS and a commitment to working with partner organisations and communities to develop approaches that are culturally relevant and appropriate.
- A belief in the value of local knowledge and experience and a commitment to communication approaches that facilitate the sharing of this knowledge and experience.
- An emphasis on South–to–South networking and sharing.
- A belief in the importance of participatory approaches, including participatory communication approaches that involve communities in developing their own communication tools to support their own responses to the HIV epidemic.
- A recognition of the enormous impact of HIV and AIDS work on development, including communication for development, and a commitment to encouraging and sharing learning from our work with partners in HIV and AIDS communication.
“To improve the situation of women living with HIV and AIDS
throughout the world, we need the media to realistically portray us,
not to stigmatise us.” International Community of Women
Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW)
“Women who are informed about this disease, about treatments,
and who go regularly to self-help groups are the ones who live longer.
They learn to look after themselves and to defend and fight for their
rights” ICW News, issue 25, April 2004
The scope of our HIV and AIDS work
Healthlink Worldwide works with organisations to strengthen community responses,
to support improved service provision, to strengthen national coordination,
and to advocate for and to support improved HIV and AIDS policies.
Our partner organisations include HIV-positive groups working at a community
level, such as NACWOLA (National Community of Women living with HIV and AIDS)
in Uganda, service providers such as FACT (Family AIDS Caring Trust) in
Zimbabwe, and organisations providing information and communication expertise
at national and regional level, such as Calandria in Peru.
Healthlink Worldwide also has contractual partners working
on consultancy projects, and informal partnerships with a range of international
NGOs and bilateral or multilateral organisations, as well as a number of
HIV and AIDS and communication networks. These include partnerships made
through policy-level activities.
Healthlink Worldwide is responsive to local issues and needs, as communicated
through its partner organisations. This means that we operate along the
continuum of prevention to care. For countries with low HIV prevalence,
partner organisations may be focusing on strengthening prevention responses
and raising awareness; where there are pockets of HIV, particularly in
vulnerable or marginalised communities or community groups,
activities may focus on strengthening communication between groups in other
countries with similar experience, and those with knowledge and effective
models or practices to share.
For instance, Healthlink Worldwide worked with the Network of Sex Work
projects to produce the publication Making sex work safe. This brought
together experiences from a wide range of sex work projects and sex workers
into a set of guidelines for use by sexual health promotion projects and
organisations developing services for sex workers. The Network has translated
the publication, originally produced into English, into a number of European
and non-European languages.
Read this publication online on the AIDS Action website
Where HIV prevalence is high, Healthlink Worldwide and its partners are
often focused on activities in care and support. Even in these areas, we
recognise the importance of prevention and engages with partners around
prevention responses where this is a recognised need.
'The crisis of prevention is larger than the crisis of treatment.
Treatment must take place in a broader context of work.' Zacke
Achmat, Treatment Action Campaign, South Africa
In areas where the epidemic is advanced and a large number of children are affected and/or living with HIV themselves, Healthlink Worldwide is working with partner organisations, communities and other stakeholders to develop and share community-coping strategies and child-centred approaches. For instance, the Child-centred approaches to HIV and AIDS project involves a number of partner organisations in East Africa, in developing, reviewing, documenting and communicating such approaches.