Pacific Islands AIDS Foundation (PIAF)

My time with PIAF (the Pacific Islands AIDS Foundation) has been challenging and quite rewarding.  In addition to producing a 30-minute documentary for the LIFT project, I have been working closely with PIAF and its director, Maire Bopp Allport, on the organization's annual AIDS Ambassadors program.  The AIDS Ambassadors program is a unique training module designed to provide care, support and training for Pacific Islanders currently living with HIV/AIDS.  In a part of the world where stigma and discrimination are still rampant, people living with HIV/AIDS in the Pacific Islands are often marginalized from, and shunned by, their various communities.  In the remote villages of Fiji, for instance, many newly diagnosed persons will keep their condition a secret for years out of fear of being banished by their villages.  As one employee at UNAIDS recently told me: people living with HIV/AIDS in the pacific often die of loneliness, rather than of the disease itself. 

Of course, this is entirely unnecessary.  Given the strides made in ARV treatments and the like, HIV positive people - if given the appropriate treatment, both medical and emotional - can live essentially normal lives.  They can have jobs and families and can even conceive healthy children of their own.  The director of PIAF, Maire Bopp Allport, is a perfect example of how an infected person can live a balanced and fulfilling life.  But without the proper care and support, people living with HIV/AIDS in the Pacific region will continue to cower in dark corners, unnecessarily ashamed of their status and in perpetual fear of becoming social outcasts.  The AIDS Ambassadors program is one of PIAF's cornerstone operations, and it is designed to empower those living with the disease, so that they can overcome the shame and stigma while learning to speak positively about who they are and what rights they deserve, regardless of their infection with a serious virus. 
 
I have been privileged to take part in PIAF's AIDS Ambassadors program for 2007, and I feel fortunate, and greatly humbled by my time with the participants.  It has been an experience that will not be forgotten.