World AIDS Day: December 1
No time for complacency on HIV/AIDS

December 1st marks World AIDS Day.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is complex, heart breaking and often the enormity of it is overwhelming. We are now twenty five years into the pandemic and with millions of people world wide living with HIV/AIDS there is no time for complacency nor for any of us to stop thinking  and planning about how we can end the spread of the disease.

While the United Nations’ most recent report on the subject has some good news in that the number of people infected with the AIDS virus is less than original estimates of close to 40 million, the situation is still very serious.

There are 33 million people infected with the AIDS virus. With some 2.5 million people newly infected with AIDS in 2007, including 2.1 million adults and 420,000 children, the greatest burden of the HIV pandemic is felt in developing countries.

Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 64 percent of all people living with HIV, despite the fact that only one-tenth of the world’s population lives there.

For many people living with HIV/AIDS their struggle to get through each day becomes their focus. How will I work? Who will employ me? Who will look after me when I can no longer work? How can I afford the treatment I need? 

The people who are most affected are usually of working age. Hence a generation of orphans has appeared, placing a burden on grandparents. Antiretroviral (ART) drugs can keep people with HIV/AIDS alive but accessing the medicines in remote areas is often difficult. Additionally for the medicines to work they must be taken very regularly and adequate nutrition is essential to their success. People living with HIV/AIDS often are stigmatised. This requires community education and often counselling.

Fr Robert J Vitillo, Special Advisor on HIV and AIDS for Caritas Internationalis points out that the impact of AIDS far exceeds the statistics. "The direct work of our Caritas member organisations and other Catholic organizations in care, counselling, and support have always indicated that the impact of AIDS is far greater than the official figures have ever shown," he said. "The response to AIDS is not just about treating a disease, but treating all the factors in our society which continue to fuel the spread of the disease and inhibit our response, such as stigma and discrimination, violence and injustice against women, poverty, isolation, abuse. We see this in the faces all around us, and these numbers cannot be quantified." 

Caritas Australia supports HIV/AIDS programs in many countries including, Papua New Guinea, El Salvador, South Africa and Cambodia. These programs support men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS, their families and communities.

Our focus on tackling HIV is three fold: educating and empowering the public about HIV; supporting people with and those affected by HIV/AIDS; and working at an international level to advocate for improving HIV/AIDS related policy and practice.

Caritas partners work hard to support these people and their communities at that very local level. However the complexity and global nature of this pandemic requires us to be engaged at an international level as well, to address issues of structural injustice on behalf of those who do not have the opportunity to do it for themselves.

Heng and So’s story

Kean Tong Heng and his wife So Socheat, both HIV positive, are from Svayrieng Province and came to Phnom Penh in 2005 when Heng was very sick and the family had no money to support them. The family experienced a common response from their neighbours who were very discriminatory and shunned them because of their HIV status.

In rural areas there is limited access to treatment. Heng and Socheat came to Phnom Penh so they could get to the hospital. As part of the Maryknoll program they too received counselling support and training. Most importantly they and their two-year-old son, Kean Ly Heutwere (pictured left/right ) were provided with accommodation in a group home in Phnom Penh, living with others affected by HIV AIDS.

“Living in a group house is great because we are like a big family. When we have a problem we can talk together,” Heng said.

Supporting human dignity

As part of Heng’s training for his future employment, Bridges have helped him to gain a paid training position in the hospice where those suffering the final stages of AIDS are cared for.

“I am gaining a lot of experience in the hospice. I look after the patients and check they are comfortable and I check on their drips and am learning other procedures. It makes me happy to be able to look after others,” Heng said.

More than 1000 people are part of the Bridges of Hope program supported by Caritas Australia. An average of 10 people per month are ‘bridged’ or reach a point where they can begin to once again provide for their own livelihood.