HIV/AIDS Silence – Stigma – Discrimination - Denial

SILENCE “When I told my parents I was HIV positive, they told me never to set foot in their house again. My husband died few years ago. My family does not want anything to do with me. I am all alone. I should have never told them.” From a discussion paper by Dhee Naidoo (Mr.Y) "It is always in the back of your mind, if I get a job, should I tell my employer about my HIV status? There is a fear of how they will react to it. It may cost you your job, it may make you so uncomfortable it changes relationships. Yet you would want to be able to explain about why you are absent, and going to the doctors.”HIV positive woman UK 24 From “HIV and AIDS Discrimination and Stigma” stigma.htmhttp:// stigma.htm

STIGMA “I am HIV-positive and always getting sick. I am rejected by the community, my family doesn’t want anything to do with me. Only my sister is willing to look after me. She took me in when her husband died. When I moved in with her, I used to talk about HIV and AIDS to educate them but the people are ignorant, they don’t talk to my sister anymore.” From a discussion paper by Dhee Naidoo (Mr.Y) -

DISCRIMINATION “All these young people today are losing their values and culture, which is why they get AIDS and die. Girls are gone too loose now; they do what ever they want and sleep with all the men, very disrespectful. People that got AIDS deserve it; it is through their immoral behavior that they are dying now of this sickness. I don’t feel sorry for these people.” From a discussion paper by Dhee Naidoo (Mr.Y) - on.pdf on.pdf "At first relations with the local school were wonderful and Michael thrived there. Only the head teacher and Michael's personal class assistant knew of his illness… Then someone broke the confidentiality and told a parent that Michael had AIDS. That parent, of course, told all the others. This caused such panic and hostility that we were forced to move out of the area. Michael was no longer welcome at the school. Other children were not allowed to play with him - instead they jeered and taunted him cruelly. One day a local mother started screaming at us to keep him away from her children and shouting that he should have been put down at birth….”British woman describing the experience of her foster son in a British school 28 From “HIV and AIDS Discrimination and Stigma” stigma.htmhttp:// stigma.htm

DENIAL “Most of the people that I have counseled that are HIV positive, believed that HIV did not affect Indians, they said they thought it was only among the Black community or the homosexuals. They didn’t believe it could have happened to them.” From a discussion paper by Dhee Naidoo (Mr.Y) -

“When I told my parents I was HIV positive, they told me never to set foot in their house again. My husband died few years ago. My family does not want anything to do with me. I am all alone. I should have never told them.” From a discussion paper by Dhee Naidoo (Mr.Y) Other Quotes

Because it is about sex, in my country they then automatically think you got it because you have been loose…you are not anything better than a prostitute… they don’t believe you didn’t get it any other way.”African woman in the UK 6 From “HIV and AIDS Discrimination and Stigma” Other Quotes

"I am afraid of giving my disease to my family members—especially my youngest brother who is so small. It would be so pitiful if he got the disease. I am aware that I have the disease so I do not touch him—I talk with him only. I don’t hold him in my arms now." - Woman in Vietnam 13 “HIV and AIDS Discrimination and Stigma”