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BY RHICK LARS VLADIMER ALBAY
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Tuesday, June 20, 2017
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“MY measurements are 40 x 60 cm. I was printed on high brightness paper and my weight is 250 grams. I’m just like any other poster. Except for one thing: I’m HIV positive,” reads the viral poster that has now reached Iloilo’s shores.
What sets it apart is a drop of blood from 27-year-old Faustine Luell Angeles, Jr. – an outdoor and extreme sports enthusiast who’s been diagnosed HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) positive for four years now. Would you be willing to make contact with such a poster?
“It’s exactly what you’ve just read. I’m living with the virus. At this point you may be taking a step back, wondering if I offer any danger,” the poster continues. “My answer is: No way.”
“HIV can’t survive outside the human body for more than one hour. Therefore, the blood that I carry is harmless. Just as living with someone who is HIV positive,” is the campaign’s positive message.
This thought-provoking poster has been put up in key locations around the city. Faustine Luell Angeles Jr. founded Pedal for HIV in February 2015, as a campaign group that promotes HIV and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) awareness through cycling and other sports-related activities.
In August of 2015, Faustine volunteered to be the first Asian person to give blood for the worldwide viral “I am a HIV Positive poster” campaign.
Started by Brazilian civic group Grupo de Incentivo a Vida (GIV), the HIV awareness movement has reached a global audience, being translated to several languages and shared to different HIV at-risk communities all of over the world.
Faustine shares that he’s given blood for almost 1,000 HIV Positive Posters now, a drop for each, most of them posted in key cities all over the Philippines.
Recent reports have shown that Iloilo has the largest prevalence of HIV in Western Visayas, regional statistics revealing that out of the total 1,028 HIV and AIDS cases in the region, Iloilo City recorded 263.
Iloilo has also shown the largest swell of HIV victims, among the 682 total newly reported cases in the Philippines, 31 cases have been attributed to Western Visayas, accounting for 5 percent of the new population.
The Positive Poster Tour de Pilipinas campaign aims to erase the stigma and discrimination tied to HIV/AIDS largely spread due to a lack of public information. Wishing to provide accessible facts on the illness, as well as encourage positive conversation and awareness, the advocacy wants to break ground for a new understanding of HIV, especially here in Iloilo.
“Because being HIV positive does not determine who you are. Whether you are a poster or a human being,” encourages the HIV Positive poster, ending on a compelling message – “If prejudice is an illness, information is the cure.” (maverhick.blogspot.com/PN)
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