Women’s Health Dec 2009: Action Figure Joy Lynn Alegarbes

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Spreading the Word

This feisty Filipina is at the forefront of educating people about condom use in the fight against AIDS.

Name: Joy Lynn Alegarbes

Age: 30

Homebase: New York City, New York

Why she’s an action figure:

Joy Lynn is a sexual health advocate and the director of global operations for The Condom Project (TCP).

In this role, Joy Lynn fights the battle against HIV/AIDS by developing culture-sensitive programs to de-stigmatize condom use and educate communities about their efficacy in HIV prevention. These programs are done in the 10 countries where TCP is present.

She also founded the sexual health education program for Camp TLC (Teens Living a Challenge) of the Joey DiPaolo AIDS Foundation, a summer camp for teenagers who are living with HIV or AIDS.

The makings of a sexual health advocate

Joy Lynn speaks: My work with condoms and sexual health education began in high school while volunteering with the HIV/AIDS theater group of the American Red Cross. In college, at New York University(NYU), I trained as a Sexual health Advocate at NYU’s Health Promotion Office. 

Setting up Camp

When I first joined the workforce in 2001, it was as the sexual health director for Condomania, New York. I served spokesperson for all of Condomania’s film, television and media appearances.

Condomania was the first condom store in the US to offer a full range of condoms and safer sex products along with educational materials advocating their proper use. The aim was to help people make educated choices about safer sex through access to accurate information and non-judgmental consultation with our trained staff.

It was working as the Sexual Health Director for Condomania that I found a lack of resources about the use of condoms beyond prevention. There was not a lot of information about maintenance or living with HIV. I supplemented much of my training with self-conducted research and observation.

This also led me to create the sexual health education program for the Camp TLC (Teens Living a Challenge) in 2002.  Camp “TLC” is a free summer camp for HIV-positive teenagers, ages 13 – 19. Many of the camp participants are born with HIV and almost all are orphans living with adoptive or foster parents.

The art of condom education

In 2004, I joined The Condom Project where my responsibilities were directed toward sexual health education through performance art. 

The primary focus of The Condom Project (TCP) is to destigmatize condoms. It is impossible to even begin dialogue about the efficacy of condoms if people are not willing to say or even hear the word “condom”.

 TCP works in 10 different countries — a culturally diverse audience. As global director for operations, my aim is to unite the global community through art-based educational programs about condoms that are culturally specific and appropriate. These creative strategies help open the door to the discussion of condoms.

One of these activities is called the Condom Art Pin – Making Program which involves physically putting a condom into someone’s hand and creating wearable usable art that just happens to be on a condom. It may seem like a simple activity but through a facilitated discussion by TCP, it is effective in engaging people to talk about myths or misperceptions about condoms.

Another is a forum for interactive condom education called the “TCP Condom Zone” where I have a display of condoms that are unrolled and inflated so that visitors can see different sizes, shapes, colors and textures available. I also educate them about a variety  of lubricants that are available.

Risks & Rewards

One of the difficulties is how people treat me because of how they perceive the work I do.  I do not encourage children to be sexually active or men to be unfaithful to their wives.  I love my work, and the more time that I spend within a given community the less likely these things are to happen; but it is still one of the most difficult aspects of my job.

But the rewards of my job are worth it. One of the most fulfilling aspects of my work is watching the people I train become educators.  In Ethiopia, a young man in one of my workshops told me he had never touched a condom. He did not understand its purpose since the condom wouldn’t fit over his testicles.  I explained how a condom should be used, and we continued to have a discussion about the benefits of safer sex.  When I returned to Ethiopia, the young man had become a peer health educator and was conducting condom trainings within his own community, providing people with clear and accurate information about condoms and HIV transmission.

About The Condom Project

Mission Statement:

The CONDOM PROJECT seeks to explore new ways of distributing lifesaving information and protection to those communities at risk of contracting and transmitting the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

What they do:

TCP communicates the preventive power of condoms in the transmission of HIV using non-traditional approaches through art, performance and educational programs. Through this venue, they create a safe place where people can feel comfortable talking about condoms and how through proper usage, they are effective in preventing HIV infection.

For more information, visit the TCP website at www.thecondomproject.org.

TCP’s mailing address in the US is:

The Condom Project

121 East 10^th St. Suite A

New York, NY 10003

 

HIV/AIDS Awareness Advocate Alcs: “The right to informed choice”

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Alcs, Witness to HIV/AIDS since the 80s

“The right to informed choice”

 It was the mid-80s and Alcs was studying fashion in Los Angeles. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) had just been discovered and labeled as fatal disease, but little else was known about it. Read more

HIV/AIDS Awareness Advocate Jerico Paterno: “The right to be free from being denied employment based on HIV status”

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Jerico Paterno

Community Health Outreach Worker: Pinoy Plus, Association

Living with HIV since 2005

“The right to be free from being denied employment based on HIV status”

 It was in Dubai when Jerico first found out that he was HIV+. It was a surprise and an unfortunate turn of event Jerico who like many migrant workers dreamt of working abroad to give his family a better life.

 “I took the HIV test as part of a pre-employment requirement. I was surprised to find that I tested positive. I had never shown signs of being sick.”, he recalls. There was little time for Jerico to get over his initial shock, he was immediately quarantined and deported back to the Philippines.

 “I was frightened. I knew very little about HIV, and confused it with AIDS. I thought I didn’t have long to live.”

The issue of mandatory HIV testing as a condition of entry, stay or employment for migrant workers in their destination countries is a subject of debate in the international community. The Coordination of  Action Research on AIDS and Mobility (CARAM Asia), a regional NGO that works on health issues and health issues, calls the policy and practice of mandatory testing for migrant workers “ discriminatory, dehumanizing and violates migrants’ rights.”

Jerico himself has played an active role in advocating migrant workers’ rights as a member of Pinoy Plus. Jerico has been invited to various international HIV/AIDS conferences in Switzerland and Indonesia to speak about his experience.

“Mandatory testing is just one of the forms of discrimination people living with HIV/AIDS face, there are many others.” stresses Jerico.

 To uncover these other forms of human rights violations, Pinoy Plus’ together with the UNAIDS, is conducting a study called “The Stigma Index” where people living with HIV/AIDS were interviewed and asked to narrate the details of the own experiences of discrimination. The results of the study are slated for release in early 2010.

HIV/AIDS Awareness Advocates Task Force Pride: “The right to sexual orientation and gender”

                                                                                                       Task Force Pride: The right to sexual orientation and gender

Queer Silver, Membership Committee

Dee Mendoza, Marketing Officer

Naomi, Public Relations Officer 

Every year the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender) community take to the streets for Pride March for two reasons: to continue rallying for their human rights of and to celebrate LGBT life and culture. The Philippines has the distinction of holding the first ever Pride March in Asia back in 1994.

Dee, is also co-founder of the Society of Transsexual Women of the Philippines (STRAP), talks about the reason why she walks in Pride marches. “When I first started to manifest my real gender expression, I was fired from my job and in my desperation to find another I applied for those that were way below my qualifications. Sometimes, I would be told to my face. “Okay lang ang mga bading, pero hindi yun mga tulad mo.”. 

Her academic credentials and professional experience as a manager were overshadowed by the disparity between the gender on her birth certificate and the gender she chose to express.  Lucky for Dee, she found an equal opportunity employer whom she has been with for the last 6 years.  “Society stereotypes us as entertainer, salons personnel,  comedienne or prostitutes. There is nothing wrong with these professions,” Dee says, “I just dream of a different one like the rest of the people do.”

Naomi concurs with this, “When you decide to change something that people think is fundamentally immutable, like gender, you trouble their sense of certainty and stability. Quietly or blatantly, they will resent you for it; or worse they will punish you for it. It is this policing and punishing because of gender expression that marginalizes people like me. Years of discrimination impair our sense of self-worth, many of us agree to this convenient arrangement — us in the margins, the rest of society living a good life.”

Emphasizing the importance of Pride Marches, Naomi says, “Thankfully, many people like me are beginning to fight back and are demanding to be treated with equal dignity.”

Queersilver speaks about the discrimination she faces and which she, as a member of Lesbian Advocates of the Philippines, advocates. “We lesbians are a double minority – we’re women and we’re lesbians.”, says Queersilver who stresses that that this one reason why lesbians are often overlooked when it comes to HIV/AIDS intervention programs. “The WSW (Women who have sex with Women) may be a lot incident group, but we nonetheless, should have access to adequate and proper information about how to protect ourselves.”

HIV/AIDS Youth Advocate Rain: The youth have a right to be free of HIV/AIDS

Rainer Naldoza

Advocate and member of youth NGOs and development agencies

“The right of the youth to be free of HIV/AIDS”

As a youth advocate, Rain makes sure that UNFPA development projects for HIV/AIDS are attuned to the needs of the youth and the realities that they face as youth (ages 15 to 24 years old) living with HIV/AIDS. Read more

HIV/AIDS Awareness Advocate AJ: “The right to adequate health care”

AJ

Human Rights Advocate

“The right to adequate health support and services.”

 When AJ came back to Manila after a year overseas, the last thing he expected was to receive an email requesting financial assistance to defray his friend, Vin’s, hospital expenses.  AJ did not even know Vin was sick or that he was in the hospital. Read more

The Manila Times: Good “Bad” Boy

I’ve always said that I love a man who isn’t afraid of wearing protection.

Really, it’s amazing how something as innocuous and small as a condom can make some men so anxious. Well, for that matter, the same applies to some women who feign being scandalized by condoms lest any other reaction would belie their good girl image. Read more

Herword.com: What you should know about the Reproductive Health Bill

What you should know about The Reproductive Health Bill

The Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2008 also known as the RH Bill seeks to provide universal access to information and services to both natural and modern family planning methods, which are medically safe and legally permissible. The premise of the RH Bill is informed choice and the freedom to decide on a method of family planning based on information that is comprehensive, accurate, and respectful of one’s personal convictions and religious beliefs.

Honorary Janette L. Garin, M.D. is Deputy Majority Leader and Representative of the 1st District of Iloilo. A staunch advocate of women’s rights and reproductive health, Representative Garin talks to HerWord and highlights the important provisions of the bill and reasons why now, more than ever, we need to have the RH Bill passed.

Why is the RH Bill relevant to every Filipina and not just those who do not have ready access to health care?

The RH Bill is not just for the welfare of those women who have no access to affordable reproductive health services. A number of local surveys reveal that one of the major impediments to family planning is the lack of accurate information and education among women and couples. Though a considerable number of women have access to and can readily afford reproductive health and family planning services and commodities, they still have difficulty making informed decisions and successfully planning the number of children that they want because they either lack or are misinformed on reproductive health and family planning.

The RH Bill seeks to break such barriers by ensuring that women and couples are provided adequate information. Among others, the proposed policy mandates a nationwide information and education program to develop a sexuality-education curriculum for young Filipinos. It will also require couples applying for marriage licenses to undergo a family planning seminar.

How will the RH Bill empower women to take control over their reproductive health and sexuality?

Among the major reproductive health issues in the Philippines are the high maternal deaths and the unwanted pregnancies that continue to exist. The bulk of these cases are in the underprivileged sector of our society where accurate information and accessible services on reproductive health care are still elusive. More often than not, it is the poor women who die because of pregnancy-related complications and even child-birth because they cannot afford or do not have access at all to quality health care services. It is the poor women who have more children than they desire because they do not use any family planning method.

If passed, the Reproductive Health Care bill will ensure that women are empowered by providing them with relevant information on safe pregnancies and child delivery. In addition, the proposed policy also seeks to make women knowledgeable about the various family planning methods available in order for them to plan the spacing [between births], the number of children they want to have, and have a healthy and satisfying sex life.

How will the RH Bill impact national development in terms of population management and better allocation of government resource allocation?

One of the incessant problems of our country is that limited resources are being allocated to the delivery of social services. Besides the fact that a chunk of the national budget is devoted to debt servicing, our scarce resources simply cannot keep up with our rapid population growth. While the fast-growing population is not the cause of poverty in the country, it most definitely exacerbates it, as it impedes economic development in many ways. The rapid population growth in a country such as ours, where poverty is wide-spread and the budget of the government already stretched, would mean more dependents and lesser capacity of the government to absorb new entrants to the labor force every year. The latest data from the National Statistics Office (NSO) states that for every one productive person, there are two to three dependents that he or she must take care of. 

In the household levels, data from the National Demographic and Health Survey shows that the poverty incidence is higher in families with larger family size. This is evidence that the increase in family size would mean lower savings to the household, because they simply have more mouths to feed. What should be noted in this case is that the family size is actually bigger than what majority of Filipino couples would want. This is seen in the consistent gap between the desired number of children and the actual number of children a couple have.

In a macro-economic perspective, addressing our country’s rapid population growth is, therefore, one of the sustainable interventions that the government must undertake to ensure consistent economic development, decrease poverty and improve delivery of social services to the people.

The RH Bill has been languishing in legislative debate for the last 20 years, what it different now in terms of the RH Bill having a chance of being passed?

The RH Bill has truly undergone exhaustive debates for a number of Congresses already. It is only this Congress however, where the bill has reached plenary deliberations in the House of Representatives. What should be different now is that more legislators are now aware of the content and true intentions of the bill as compared before when they perceived providing modern methods of family planning as the only purpose of the proposed law. The heightened awareness is seen in the huge increase in the number of legislators who signed as co-authors of the RH Bill in the 14th Congress.

With the elections coming up, is there an even more urgent need now to pass the bill?

With the elections coming up, there is a serious threat that the RH bill might lose some of its supporters. However, I believe that now, more than ever, is the time to pass this policy. The debates on this issue have already been exhausted. We keep on arguing about the same set of issues every Congress. It is time for us legislators to show where we stand, and I sincerely hope that the Philippine Congress heeds the call of the majority of the Filipinos and pass the Reproductive Health Care Bill.

NOTE: The 14th Congress broke for recess last October 16, 2009 without the RH Bill being passed.

What can we, as ordinary citizens, do to aid the passage of the RH Bill?

As common citizens, it is important to participate in policy-making as much you can. You can do this by making sure that your voice is heard and your opinions are considered by your policymakers. One way is to write to your district representatives and to some leaders of Congress. Ask them to support the RH bill and work for its immediate enactment. Your letters will validate survey results that consistently show that 9 out of 10 Filipinos are clamoring for the passage of a reproductive health and population development policy as shown consistently by various survey results. You can also go to: www.petitiononline.com/rhan2008/petition.html and sign the online for the immediate passage of the Reproductive Health Bill into law.

Please address some of the allegations about the RH Bill, namely:

That it promotes abortion.

The reproductive health bill does not promote abortion. In fact, one of the primary intentions of the bill is to prevent abortions by providing information and services to women, couples and young people to avoid unwanted pregnancies. Majority of women who undergo abortion in the Filipinas are already married and have children. This reflects the failure of many women and couples to plan their families or space their pregnancies.

In addition, the provision on the MANAGEMENT OF POST-ABORTION COMPLICATIONS does not mean that the bill espouses abortion. There are cases wherein women experience complications from abortion, but are not admitted by hospitals when it uncovers that they attempted abortions. The provision merely guarantees that the right of women to health services is protected even if they commit illegal abortions. No woman should be denied their right to life.

That it advocates sex education in schools and thus, encourages promiscuity.

Providing sexuality education does not mean that the passage of the RH bill would lead to promiscuity among the youth. With the technology available to us today, the youth is constantly bombarded with inaccurate information about sex from mass media. As a result, more and more of the youth engage in early sexual initiations and other risky sexual behaviors. This leads to the rise of teenage pregnancies. There is a serious and urgent need to address this issue and we can only start doing so if we learn to accept that depriving the youth of correct information on reproductive health will not stop them from being promiscuous.

The RH bill advocates for responsible reproductive health and sexuality education that will inculcate values, but at the same time provide the youth with correct information on reproductive health. Doing so will empower the youth to make informed and responsible decisions in the future.

That it is anti-life and goes against Catholic beliefs.

The RH bill is not anti-life. We even say that it is pro-quality of life because it seeks to prevent deaths of mothers, abortion and unwanted pregnancies. In addition, the bill also aims to slow down population growth rate in the country to enable the government to allocate more resources for the delivery of services to the people.

I believe that it is not going against the beliefs of the Catholics, because no part of this RH Bill says that couples and women will be coerced to use contraceptives. Filipino couples will still be free to plan their families based on their religious convictions when the bill is passed. The RH Bill merely promotes responsible parenthood by widening choices and providing more information for them to come up with informed decisions.

We respect the stand of the Catholic Church on the issue of Reproductive Health. However, it is not fair to deny Filipino couples their right to decide freely and responsibly on the number of their children, and the right of women to be safe from deaths due to pregnancy-related complications and child birth.

There are some men who still tend to be indifferent about reproductive health, leaving all the child-bearing responsibilities to the women, how can we get more men to support the RH Bill?

 To effect change in the culture, we must aim for behavior change communication (BCC) interventions targeting the male population. The lack of male participation in family planning in the Philippines is rooted in the “macho” culture in the Philippines. Most men refuse to undergo vasectomy because they fear that they would not be able to perform in bed anymore if they do so. Some do not care about family planning at all which leaves the women assuming the responsibility of family planning. In some cases, men’s disregard for family planning results to women giving birth to more children than their actual desired number.

The men should be made to understand that family planning is a shared responsibility. More importantly, the men should learn more about pregnancy; know the danger signs that they should take note of during pregnancy and the effects of closely-spaced births on a woman’s body.

The Magna Carta of Women, which has been recently passed, has a provision that guarantees a woman’s right to health through proper information and access to services, how does this impact the RH Bill?

The passage of Magna Carta of Women is another validation that we are on the right track in pushing for the RH bill. The rights guaranteed in the Magna Carta of Women are the very rights that the RH bill is based upon.

Though the Magna Carta of Women has already been passed, there is still a need to enact the Reproductive Health bill and ensure that sufficient resources are allocated to fund reproductive health services and commodities and that a strong and comprehensive reproductive health and population development program is installed.

 

The Manila Times: Keeping the Promise

 

I spent a bit of time thinking about what verb to use in relation to this year’s World AIDS Day theme: Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise.

Celebrate or commemorate? As society continues to obsess with politesse, I wondered which would be the more politically correct term to use.

Then I decided it would be an injustice to use just one word, when both should be used together. World AIDS Day is both a commemoration and a celebration.

Every December 1, the world comes together to commemorate the estimated more than 25 million lives that the disease has claimed since 1981.

Data provided by UNAIDS shows that as of 2007, there are an estimated 33.2 million people living with HIV around the world; 2 million of whom are children.

When you talk to those who were already of age during the 1980s, they will speak about the sheer terror of friends dying one by one, succumbing to a mysterious disease that they knew nothing about. This lack of knowledge spawned rumors and speculation and the atmosphere was rife with fear and paranoia.

There was talk that you could get AIDS from a soiled toilet seat, from a handshake, from a sneeze.

People living with AIDS not only suffered the physical pains of the disease, but also the disdain and judgment of society in general. In the movie, “Philadelphia,” Tom Hanks played lawyer, Geoffrey Bowers, who sued his firm for unfairly dismissing him because of his condition. It was one of first AIDS discrimination cases ever to be documented. Denzel Washington played his homophobic lawyer who had himself tested after shaking hands with Hanks, fearing that AIDS could be transmitted by handshake. In the movie, Geoffrey Bowers won his case, but passed away shortly after.

World AIDS Day is meant to commemorate the memory of people like Geoffrey Bowers.

There have been many advances in the world of AIDS since then—the linking of HIV as the virus that causes AIDS and basic information about how the infection is spread. These developments have considerably lessened the stigma, condemnation, and other forms of judgment associated with HIV/AIDS.

In the scientific front, the discovery of anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy has come to mean that HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence. Other scientific advancements include:

• The average number of years that people living with HIV are estimated to survive treatment has been increased from 9 to 11 years.

• A number of countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, have expanded and improved their HIV surveillance systems, and are conducting new, more accurate studies. Data from these studies aid better understanding of the global AIDS epidemic.

In the AIDS Vaccine 2009 Conference this week in Paris, the results of research showing that a vaccine for HIV may be close to be being developed will be discussed.

And for these reasons, World AIDS Day is a day of celebration. Many barriers have been broken down, but there are many more to overcome.

In the Philippines, the country’s HIV/AIDS incidence classification as “low incidence” has been changed to “hidden and growing.” In the first ever MSM/TG (Men Who Have Sex with Men/Transgender) National Conference held last July, there were 85 new HIV infections confirmed by the Philippine HIV and AIDS Registry in the month of May alone. This is a 143-percent increase compared to the same period last year (an average of 35 cases per month) and the highest ever reported number in a single month.

Since the first reported case of HIV in 1984, there have been a total of 3,911 HIV cases registered in the Philippine HIV and AIDS Registry.

These are indications that in the Philippines, the battle for better understanding and informed choice, universal access to health care services is just beginning.

And this is exactly why we have to continue to keep the promise to stop AIDS and find a cure.

A group of HIV/AIDS activists and people living with HIV/AIDS are putting together a photo shoot and inviting others to wear the AIDS Red Ribbon on their semi-nude or nude bodies to show the purity and passion behind their promise to support HIV/AIDS.

It happens on November 8, Sunday, at Victoria Court, Pasig.

For details, call 0917-886-4862 or visit www.anasantoswrites.com.

The Manila Times: Coming Out Positive

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Coming out positive

Three Filipinos Living with HIV Making a Difference in ICAAP9

By Ana Santos, Contributor   On the surface, Edna, a housewife; Jerico, a former OFW; and Jocelyn, a former waitress in Angeles City, may not seem like they have anything in common. However different they may seem, there is one distinct point where their lives intertwine-Edna, Jerico and Jocelyn are all living with HIV. At the recently concluded International AIDS Conference (ICAAP9) in Bali, Indonesia, the 2nd largest AIDS Conference in the world, these three Filipinos came out to share their stories of living with HIV. Together, the three gave not only a face to the epidemic, but a voice to the everyday realities of living with it. Edna, housewife and mother Edna, is a 38-year-old housewife. When she met her husband, Romy, he was a seafarer whose journeys to other lands fascinated her. They married after a few years of dating and Romy continued his job as a seafarer, deployed to various parts of the world for long periods at a time. Edna says that, at first, it was difficult to have Romy away so much, but after they started having children, it became easier to bear. She busied herself with taking care of the children and being both mother and father to them while Romy was at sea. While they weren’t rich, Edna says that they lived a pretty decent life on Romy’s salary. But in 2004, this all changed. In that year, Romy met an accident while he was onboard the ship. When he was trying to fix a hydraulic jack, one of the pipes came loose and hit him. Romy was left with a huge wound in his upper abdomen. He was declared unfit to work and sent home when his ship docked in Amsterdam. Back in the Philippines, Romy was operated on and his blood was tested. A few weeks later, an epidemiologist told him his blood tested positive for HIV. The implication of such news was a lot for Edna to bear. Romy thinks that he may have gotten infected during an encounter in Brazil where he had unprotected sex. But the infidelity soon became the easier burden to bear. Romy could no longer return to work so Edna had to assume the role of sole breadwinner of the family. In 2007, Edna also tested positive for HIV. At first, I didn’t want to be tested. Romy is the only man I’ve ever had contact with so I figured that if he was positive, I was positive, too. According to a UNAIDS study entitled, HIV Transmission in Intimate Partner Relationships in Asia, there are an estimated 1.7 million women in Asia who are living with HIV. The study estimates that 90 percent of these women were infected by their longtime boyfriends or husbands. However, being a seafarer may have also increased Romy’s vulnerability to the virus. A recent study showed that seafarers are three times more susceptible to the HIV, as compared to the general population. Being far away from home compounded by the loneliness of being at sea makes seafarers seek offshore recreation through unprotected sexual encounters. Some may maintain a casual relationship with a commercial sex worker in different ports who may in turn be having simultaneous relationships with other male clients. The incidence of multiple concurrent partnerships adds to the seafarers vulnerability to HIV. Edna’s testimony at a forum held by the International Organization on Migration (IOM) was the preface for the launching of a new IOM program whose specific objective is to reduce HIV incidence in the maritime sector. The program called, Global Partnership on HIV and Mobile Workers in the Maritime Sector is the first global multisectoral partnership that involves employers of seafarers, trade union organizations and international labor groups. The Philippines, which deploys around 350,000 seafarers and supplies 20 percent of all seafarers globally, has been chosen to be the pilot country for this program. Other members of this global partnership include: International Committee on Seafarers Welfare, International Labour Organization, International Maritime Health Association, International Shipping Federation and Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Jerico, former OFW Jerico was just about to live out his dream of working in a foreign country and celebrate his 30th birthday when he found out that he was HIV positive. It was 2005 and Jerico had just moved to Dubai. He had gotten a job working in a food establishment and a HIV test was a prerequisite for an employment visa. Even though I had a number of casual unprotected encounters with other men, I wasn’t nervous about taking the test. I didn’t think HIV was something that would happen to me. When they told me that I was positive, I thought it was the end of the world, recalls Jerico. Being in a foreign country made matters worse for Jerico. Not only was he away from family and friends, he also had to contend with the HIV policy on migrant workers in a foreign country. I was put in a quarantine area isolated from the rest of the hospital and then I was deported, he says. While his dream of working abroad may have come to an end, Jerico found another way to make a difference. As an Area Coordinator of Pinoy Plus, a support group of people living with HIV/AIDS, he conducts pre-departure orientation seminars to OFWs. Jerico is also a staunch advocate of policies that will protect the rights of migrant workers who are HIV positive. Drawing from his own experience, he has been invited to international conferences to give his personal testimony. Before ICAAP9, Jerico was in Switzerland speaking at a World Health Organization (WHO) forum about his experience. Sharing my story has helped a lot in my healing. I used to think that I was dying and that there was no hope. I hope that I can be seen as proof that there is life after a positive diagnosis. At ICAAP9, the Coordination of Action Research on AIDS and Mobility (CARAM Asia), a regional Malaysia-based NGO that investigates migration and health issues, called for the removal of mandatory HIV testing for migrant workers as a condition for entry, stay, or employment in their destination country. According to CARAM’s Asian Report on Mandatory Testing, standard practices such as securing explicit consent, provision of pre-test and post-test counseling, protection of confidentiality are often ignored due to various factors related to large-scale testing of migrants. Furthermore, CARAM called for a stop to the deportation of migrant workers who are HIV+ or have other treatable health conditions. Jocelyn, former commercial sex worker Jocelyn had just moved to Angeles City and was only 15 when a friend asked her is she wanted a job as a waitress. I was very excited because I hadn’t finished primary school and there was this opportunity to earn money and help my mother, she recalls. Jocelyn paid a friend P100 for the use of her birth certificate that to show that she was 18 years old and started working as a waitress serving drinks to American servicemen. After about a year, a friend introduced Jocelyn to a medicine that she insisted would make her feel good and forget all her problems. Jocelyn took it, not realizing that it was ecstasy. Before taking ecstasy, Jocelyn says that she never went out with the customers. But once I started taking this medicine, I did not feel shy. I had no fear and felt that I was a strong woman who could take her of herself. One month after taking ecstasy, Jocelyn lost her virginity. She continued going out with customers after that. Jocelyn says that she started to earn a lot more money and for the first time in their life, she was eating three meals a day. As part of the bars policy, Jocelyn underwent a smear test to check against STIs every week and an HIV anti-body test every six months. In 1991, she got pregnant with her first son. She was only 17 years old. It was also the year when Mount Pinatubo erupted and all the American Air Force men moved out of Angeles City-including the father of Jocelyn’s child. Jocelyn decided to stop working to look after her son, but the difficulty of making ends meet as a single parent made her decide to go back to the bar in January 1994. In March of that same year, she took an HIV anti body test even though she had had no partner for over a year. A couple of days later, she shared one night with a serviceman and became pregnant. Jocelyn was told that she was HIV positive when she was pregnant with her second child. I was terrified that my child would also be positive, but no one could give me any information. At the time, people had so many misconceptions about HIV. They wanted to burn people who had it, Jocelyn confesses. Jocelyn says that she experienced discrimination and was treated as an outcast even by her own family when she told them that she had HIV. My brother wouldn’t eat at the same table with me. He was afraid that he would get infected if he shared my glass or utensils. She attributes the lack of understanding and information about HIV as the incendiary factor that nurses and provokes this discrimination. My brother eventually made peace with me after he saw a woman living with HIV on TV. In 2004, Jocelyn began working as a peer educator in a social hygiene clinic in Angeles City. Everyday she conducts seminars on STIs and HIV prevention for the new women from the provinces who come to Angeles City to work in the bars. The seminars are requirement for a work certificate. On certain days, Jocelyn also provides counseling for women diagnosed with HIV. Jocelyn is also part of Sister Plus, small group of HIV positive women in Angeles. Last year, they received funding and started a livelihood program. Every woman who is a member is entitled to receive P50,000; P20,000 for burial expenses that is really funny and P30,000 to start a small business, she explains. Jocelyn used the money to put up a small sari-sari store in her house. After much inner turmoil and guilt for possibly passing on the infection to her second son, in 2005, Jocelyn finally had him tested. She was relieved to find out that he was negative. Now my life is some much better than before. It was a hard life, but I am happy because I feel like I have broken through a wall, says Jocelyn. I have no regrets. Jocelyn’s story, as told here, is featured in a book entitled Diamondsa compilation of 10 stories of women living with HIV in the Southeast Asia Region. The story of a 12-year-old girl from India is also included in the book. Diamonds is published by the women’s working groups of APN+ (Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS) in collaboration with UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women). The book also has a DVD version with the same title. A book launch and a DVD screening were done for the first time at ICAAP9. During the launch, writer/editor Susan Paxton said, Ten years ago, very few people would come out and say that they were HIV+. Most of the time, the ones who would speak about it were men. Diamonds is monumental because now, we not only have live testimonials with faces, but testimonials from these very brave women living with HIV.

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