A ‘positive’ effort for women living with HIV in South Asia
Panos Pakistan’s initiative, ‘Positive Voices’, aimed at empowering women living with HIV and AIDS in South Asia to communicate their life stories through oral testimonies, involved training 12 individuals from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal - with varied experience in media, training and reproductive health issues including HIV/AIDS - to collect oral testimonies and train others to do the same.
After the regional Training-of-Trainers (ToT) in Nepal, ToT participants from India, Sri Lanka and Nepal went on to train 23 women (7 in Pakistan, 10 in India, 6 in Sri Lanka) in oral testimony interviewing and transcription. They have each gathered at least two, and a maximum of five oral testimonies of women living with HIV and AIDS in their respective countries. These include both women who are HIV+ themselves or are wives/partners of an HIV+ man.
Handling equipment: Kousalya and Chon practicing with recording equipment at the Training of Trainers workshop in Nepal, March 2009
Before the national training workshops, ToT participants themselves collected oral testimonies (about 15 in all collected by 9 of the 12 ToT participants) of women living with HIV in their countries in order to practice their oral testimony collection skills.
As a result of these activities, a regional collection of almost 100 oral testimonies is emerging comprising compelling tales told in their own words by women living with HIV and AIDS across South Asia. These are stories of:
despondency…
“By the time you are tested positive it is not your house, it’s your husband’s house. Your value as a daughter is different from your value as a daughter-in-law. For most women, their husband is either sick or dead, or they are pregnant, by the time they are tested [positive].”
-Celina Menezes, 34, HIV+, New Delhi, INDIA
faith…
“I do not have any-long term plans. I only think that if my husband gets well then he will shoulder the responsibility which I am taking [on] right now out of compulsion. I am trying to educate them (the children) because I am illiterate.”
-Shamshad Arshad, 30, HIV+, Karachi, PAKISTAN
hope…
“Everybody was talking about life and I was only talking and thinking about death, dying and loneliness…”
-Celina Menezes, 34, HIV+, New Delhi, INDIA
courage…
“There is a tiny bit of joy in my heart that because of Lanka+ and my being HIV+ I could do something for society…that I could save many others... I can say with confidence that I have done that.”
-Princey Mangalika, 49, HIV+, President, Lanka Plus, Colombo, SRI LANKA
“My husband’s illness…was very, very painful…. He depended so much on me, so I took a lot inwards and didn’t show anything.”
-Safia, 72, HIV+, Karachi, PAKISTAN
Once the testimonies are translated and edited, Panos will invite the interviewers, partner organizations and stakeholders in the national response to HIV and AIDS in the focus countries to national workshops where they will discuss how best to disseminate these testimonies and amplify the voices of HIV+ women to reach the ears of policy-makers.
Chon, OT trainer (seated on the floor, centre) with her interviewing team: Sulochana, Neetu, Sangita, Shashikala, Renu, Ritu, Sarita, Leela and Ranchu in Patna, Bihar in October 2009. |
