| THAILAND
Positive Kids Fear Negative Effect of Ignorant Good Samaritans
by Sutthida Malikaew
BANGKOK — Thailand is a country with perhaps the most experience in Asia in dealing with HIV/AIDS. It's national AIDS programme is regularly cited as an example of successful intervention.
And yet, despite all that experience and awareness campaigns, it is still a country where prejudices against HIV-infected persons remain. In fact, prejudices are so prevalent that even young children living with the deadly virus are afraid to "out" themselves publicly for fear of social ostracism and discrimination.
"I am not happy to disclose my HIV status in public," says New (not her real name), a 15 year-old girl who was infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, from her mother. New recalls that during her early years in school, some of her friends called her an 'AIDS junkie' because they alleged her mother was a prostitute. "I was not able to take it," she says.
Those painful days are now behind her, but not the fear of public ostracism. As thousands of other children living with HIV have done, New too carefully guards her HIV status.
Though Thailand usually likes to proclaim its strides in controlling the deadly virus and the illness it causes, sectors of the country still lack awareness of the disease and how it is spread. As a result, people and children living with the virus have sometimes been ill-treated.
To be fair though, Thailand's progress in controlling HIV/AIDS is genuine. Unique awareness campaigns by committed governments over the years have helped to reduce once drastic infection rates to just 20,000 annually. Among children, the total number living with HIV/AIDS in 2002 was 22,852, with new infection rates hovering between 1,800 to 2,000 a year, according to the Ministry of Public Health.
That is a big progress in a country once singled out as the worst epicenter of the epidemic. But as recent experience shows, there is still some way to go before all HIV-infected people feel safe and loved.
Sara (not her real name), 13, had to leave school for three months last year after both her parents died. Now back in class, she is concerned how her friends will react if they find out her HIV status. "One day, I asked my classmate what she would do if there was an HIV-infected student in the same classroom," she says, explaining the reason for her concern. "And she said she would move. She would never study in the same class as an 'AIDS kid'. So I just have to keep quiet."
Both New and Sara are active participants of an Art Camp, held specifically for HIV positive children. Last year in
November, the two, along with a number of other children from the camp, took part in an exhibition of their drawings at the People's AIDS Fairs at the Royal Ground, Bangkok. The AIDS Fair was organised by a number of NGOs working on the HIV/AIDS.
Though held with a noble aim, one of the organisers of the fair, Wat Prabath Nam Phu, the biggest hospice for People Living with HIV/AIDS in Thailand, showed their ignorance by publicly displaying the real names and faces of HIV infected children on a TV programme. In one instance, the camera also zoomed on a sore on the body of a sick child. Though the programme did ultimately show the child receiving treatment, the damage to young minds was done.
The tragic irony was that one of the discussions in the fair the children participated in was titled "Why we don't want to be publicized." Participating children had strongly voiced their fear of discrimination and ostracism.
Aree Khumpitak, a Bangkok-based nurse from Medicine Sans Frontieres (Belgium) who works on prevention and care of people living with HIV/AIDS, said that though she understood the motive behind the TV programme, she still feels that the children's faces should not have been shown.
She was also concerned that the picture of a sick child with sore on his body would spread false impressions among the public that people with HIV infection "looks like this." But in truth, many infected persons can look normal and healthy.
"However, the film presented on that day showed that finally the kid got treatment. This was the best part because AIDS can be treated and children with HIV are able to grow up and live normal lives like other children," she noted. Though HIV and its manifestations have been treatable for some years, it cannot be cured. Infected people carry the virus for life and can easily pass it to others through risky behaviour.
Chutima Saisaengchan, the coordinator of We Understand Group, a non-profit dealing with HIV/AIDS, said that her group is always concerned about children's participation in public programmes. The children are included in all campaign processes, and that might endanger their anonymity.
Having worked with people living with HIV/AIDS for years, Chutima knows the perils of publicity. She feels that until society fails to become more understanding, disclosing real names of infected people or showing their faces publicly can cause real trouble. This can adversely affect a young child's mind, she says.
"These kids have a lot of bad experience from people in society. That's why they felt so worried when they saw other kids' faces in public," says Chutima about the ill-thought-out TV show. But she feels that there are ways to involve children in awareness programmes without compromising their identity. Activities such as drawing, puppet theatre and poems, she says, are suitable since the children can still protect their identity while at the same time helping to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS issues.
The children at the November AIDS fair were so concerned that some of them asked Chutima to pass on their concerns to the TV people "who showed the children's faces on TV." Chutima shows some examples of the messages children have written. One of them simply asks: "Do you have any idea about what will happen to them (children) when they are publicized?" Another states: "I don't know what you get from this (publicizing children's face) but children will face discrimination from society that have not accepted them yet."
As for some of the children whose faces were shown, they too are uneasy. "I think the media is like a two-sided coin," said Yo, a 15 year-old from north Thailand, who was one of the HIV-infected children whose face was shown on TV. "They can make people understand us better or they can make people misunderstand us and do harm to us. It depends on what they select to present. For me though, I need people to understand us and don't need them to feel sorry for us. This is what I hope from the media." (END/IPSAP)
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