So today is world AIDs awareness day.
A lot of people here in Taiwan don't have a clue what the red ribbon, which i wear, is all about (often thinking its for cancer...)
I have been wearing one every year for a long long time now and normally around this time of year. I should wear it all year round in Taiwan as the number of people that ask me is amazing. In England nobody ever asked me as it would seem that they all know what's going on...even if the spread of HIV hasn't stopped at least people know what it is and that you don't catch it from toilet seats....
Hear mearly playing with a child who's mother has HIV is deadly...yep you got it, people are ignorant and terrified. It's totally amazing for me to see how people here deal with HIV and AIDs, it is some what like i remember back in the 80s in England. You know, everyone thought that you can catch it from touching someone with HIV, and that only Gay people or drug addicts contract it...Oh how wrong can a nation still be. In the year 2008 i still hear people talking like this here. They either have never really hear anything about HIV, or they think they know everything, yet in fact know nothing at all.
Most people with HIV here are shunned by society and even their own families turn on them and want nothing to do with them. The only good thing here, and yes it's wonderful, is they all get free medical care...but at what cost? Well everyone who has, or might have HIV (i.e. babies born to a HIV positive mother), have to be put on a publicly available list...*(i am not 100% sure it's public but i know it's easy to get hold of as someone i know did...).
At university or any such place if you have HIV you can't live in the dormitories as you too much of a risk...yep i couldn't believe that.
A group home for HIV positive mothers and orphans was forced to re-located due to the public around them finding out they where HIV positive. They went to court and the Judge, in his infinite wisdom, decided that having HIV was a public health risk to the surrounding people thus told them to re-locate. (Harmony Home is the name of the place just look it up it happened!) I've been there and yes there are a lot of people, and children i might add, and they don't look like they are going around sleeping with all the neighbors or doing drugs with all the neighbors!!
A few of the kids are school age and it's been a big problem to find a school that will take them. Ones that do have someone watching them all the time they are there and telling the other kids not to go near them as they are HIV positive...nice huh. Some of the teachers refuse to have them in the class, they say that they are disruptive...but the truth is in fact it's often the other parents don't want them in the same class as their kids are in. I also suspect that all these kids do have behavior problems, i think i would growing up with HIV here where your treated like well to put it bluntly, shit.
My dear daughters birth mother has HIV and you know it's amazing what a nightmare we have been through with finding a nanny to care for her. Even though my dd has been cleared of HIV for about a year....no one cares, they all think that she can give it to their kid, or that she might get it later and we just don't know yet...so naive, it never ceases to amaze me and the rubbish that i hear. And these people are the uneducated no a lot of them work in my building, and thus a lot of them have a Ph.D., and not in history or something unrelated to biology no in biology. (not medical but come). The orphanage she is from Garden of Mercy, has to be really careful not to disclose it's address as they fear that they will be shut down or asked to move. It's crazy really crazy.
I feel for all those who have HIV or AIDs and i am so so thankful that i don't, i know this for sure as they will not let you in the country to work if you have HIV. oh and when they give you the results its on a big pile of other peoples results so you can see who has and hasn't got it right there in front of you. there is no i repeat no privacy here in Taiwan!
Please please wear a ribbon this year, if not today then tomorrow as people need to know that you support them in their journey. Even if know one asks you about it its still a statement.
http://unite.blogcatalog.com/ blogger unit for awareness to HIV and AIDs
http://www.aidscare.org.tw/EN/index.asp Garden of mercy...not much information but still had to add it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6066242.stm news report about Harmony home
http://www.hhat.org:8080/hhat/taiwan.html Harmony homes website
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