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Compassionate portraits
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Quiet Storm tries to enable the destigmatisation of HIV/AIDS and protect the rights of those affected, writes MURALI N. KRISHNASWAMY.
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THE frightening scourge of the 1980s has come around again ... AIDS is back in the news, talked about everywhere with even the celebrities — athletes, politicians, rock and movie stars, billionaire corporate types — making the rounds and telling us about how the situation is just getting worse. In the process, they're letting us know that we're not doing enough.
Compounding this is one piece of the picture that shows that the rampant spread of AIDS in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa is becoming a global economic problem. And on the other side, is the faint glimmer of hope that the medical world creates from time to time... .
But in general, as the experience of infected people during the last two decades has shown, while being HIV positive is not the "end of the world" and that there is quality life for several more years, stigma, silence, discrimination and denial as well as the lack of confidentiality in this part of the globe undermine prevention, care and treatment efforts and increase the impact of the epidemic on individuals, families, communities and countries.
The way out, as Dr. Peter Piot, executive director, UNAIDS, once said in a world conference ... "Responding to AIDS with blame, or abuse towards people living with AIDS, simply forces the epidemic underground, creating the ideal conditions for HIV to spread. The only way of making progress against the epidemic is to replace shame with solidarity, and fear with hope."
Coinciding with the World AIDS Day (December 1), the UNDP Regional HIV and Development Programme for South and North East Asia has published a pictorial monograph on the lives of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in South and North East Asia ... a slick 60-page book, with a glossary, titled Quiet Storm, that looks at a different world.
Here is a broad cross-section of people with HIV speaking to us and providing a compassionate portrait of their losses, strengths, and attitudes, and their ability to finding meaning in life.
Whether it is the narrative on page 19 of Thomas' (of Guang Dong in China) perseverance of searching on the net for Indian Anti Retroviral Treatment (ART) drugs and doctors (he finds one in Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi) or the ironical story of Sri Lanka's Dr. Kamalika (p.43), at the end of it, the reader realises that the strength to live "comes from an indomitable will".
Produced in partnership with INP+ (Indian Network for People Living with HIV/AIDS), APN+ (Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS) and PLWHA groups in the region, (the addresses have been listed) Quiet Storm tries to enable the destigmatisation of HIV/AIDS and the protection of the rights of PLWHA. All this while articulating the emotional evolution undergone in an attempt to reach a plateau of peace.
Quiet Storm, Celebrating the Triumph of Human Spirit over HIV/AIDS, UNDP, 2002, p.60
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