Two HIV-positive persons join national AIDS campaign
ANESHA and Ainsley, two persons living with HIV, have joined the national AIDS campaign and are featured in a multi-media campaign “Getting on with Life”, launched by the Ministry of Health in Kingston yesterday.
The campaign’s aim is to show that HIV-positive persons lead normal productive lives and should not face discrimination.
Andrea Hutchinson, the communications consultant who created the media campaign, said at the launch at the Hilton Kingston Hotel that the population not living with HIV needed to understand that people with AIDS “get on with their lives just like you do.
“They are doing things just like we do. When we spoke with persons with HIV and AIDS they said, ‘We go to supermarket and we go to beach. We take care of our children, we have relationships and we are happy. We want people to see that’,” Hutchinson said.
One of the campaign flyers, titled “Getting On With Life”, has a picture of an attractive and healthy-looking Anesha, who has been HIV-positive for more than five years, saying “Treat persons with HIV and AIDS just as you would want to be treated. No bother with the discrimination”.
Another flyer with the same message, has a picture of Ainsley, who has just finished jogging. Ainsley has been living with HIV for over 13 years.
One of the television advertisements show Anesha happily shopping at a supermarket, while in another, Ainsley is seen eating fish and festival at Hellshire beach.
Dr Peter Figueroa, the chief of epidemiology and AIDS, said the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS in Jamaica had declined considerably, when compared with the early years.
