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Condoms not condemnation
From Kumudini Hettiarachchi in Bangkok
"Raise your hand if you are HIV positive."
It was a simple, yet loaded request and as everyone in the packed room curiously turned around to see who was HIV positive, a single hand, somewhat hesitantly, went up. It was a middle-aged woman, in a salwar kameez, looking embarrassed, with a child by her side.

The request came from pretty Anandi Yuvaraj of India, who herself is HIV positive and was the ultimate reality check for the theme under discussion at the XV International AIDS Conference held last week in Bangkok.

Nine people, six women and three men, were speaking on 'Gender, condoms and stigma in South Asia' and Anandi was one. Taking the youth perspective on this sensitive topic to the international arena from a region where talking sex is taboo not only in homes but also in schools and universities, was teenager and Scout Samudra Samith Dinesh from Sri Lanka.

"The condom is condemned. But it is a necessary tool for sexually active youth to protect themselves," Samudra said. Lamenting that sex education in the region including Sri Lanka is at a very low level, he explained that the situation is even worse for women because they lack access to education and information.

"The situation of HIV infected and affected people is appalling. They are deprived of their basic rights, needs, self-worth and hope," Samudra, a youth representative sponsored by UNICEF, said urging that laws be enacted to protect them and provide them services and ensure respect.

"This should be the goal of all governments in the region. The reduction of stigma and discrimination of people living with HIV/AIDS is one of the necessary measures in this goal," said Samudra while Anandi from the India HIV/AIDS Alliance pleaded with those living with HIV to come out into the open and get involved in prevention.

Diagnosed with HIV in 1997, Anandi says, "I didn't care about stigma and discrimination. When I heard that I had HIV, I was so happy that I was alive. That day I thought, I am not dying today. We who are HIV positive must turn the world upside down. We must talk about condoms and prevention," she said.

Dubbed the selected critical themes for South Asia, strategic condom programming, gender issues in HIV programming and stigma and discrimination were being discussed last Tuesday. The chairperson was Dr. Nafis Sadik, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific. And in the room, among the few posters adorning the wall was one with Lanka's own popular cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya asking, "I care. Do you?"

"There is the conundrum of gender, stigma and condom use that we must traverse to succeed in combating the spread of AIDS," stressed Meenakshi Datta Ghosh, Project Director of India's National AIDS Control Programme who had introduced two contraceptives in the family planning programme in 2002.

The effectiveness of the condom was put in focus when Ms. Ghosh said that in 85% of the 5.1 million people living with HIV in India, the disease has been transmitted sexually. According to her the stigma around condoms and the silence around sex make the situation more complex and there is an urgent need to bring about a change in the attitudes of men and boys.

Making a powerful and passionate presentation, Dr. Pramilla Senanayake of Sri Lanka said the tragedy is that policy-makers, parents and service providers find adolescent sexuality and reproductive needs an uncomfortable subject. "Millions of young people are being denied essential reproductive health information and services. These are denials of their basic human rights."

The need is to acknowledge that the overwhelming statistics on adolescent HIV infections and deaths are in fact compelling evidence of the tragic consequences of violating fundamental human rights, said Dr. Senanayake, a former Assistant Director General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). "There is an urgent need to move out of this damaging culture of denial and remember that sexual health is not about morality but an issue of bodily integrity and wellbeing."

On gender issues, Kathleen Cravero, Deputy Executive Director, UNAIDS, Geneva came up with several crucial suggestions including the strengthening of HIV prevention for women, reducing violence against women, protecting or ensuring property and inheritance rights of women, guaranteeing equal care for women, promoting female contraception methods such as the female condom and promoting education for girls so that it will be a positive weapon against HIV.

These are warnings and issues South Asia needs to take seriously to prevent the AIDS pandemic going the same way here as in Africa. Women and HIV is of critical importance for the countries in this region because throughout the 15th International AIDS Conference what has been a recurrent subject is the "young female face of HIV" as more and more young girls are ensnared in its web.

For Sri Lanka, measures need to be taken to keep its status of 'HIV low prevalence' (so far the estimated number is 7,500-8,000 with 523 reported HIV/AIDS cases) by addressing and strengthening these three important issues of gender, condoms and stigma. Then should come the next step of attempting to bring down the numbers of those living with this deadly enemy.

Celebrities light up the darkness
A blackout in the 10,000-seat arena at the IMPACT Convention and Exhibition Centre in Bangkok, Thailand. Suddenly thousands and thousands of pinpoints of light illuminate the darkness.

It is around 9 p.m. on July 11 (last Sunday) and time for the candlelight memorial for those who have said goodbye after falling victim to AIDS, the pandemic that is spreading across the world. The AIDS candle is jointly lit by Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, while the tiny torches handed out to each and every person who entered the arena shine in the darkness.

This is the highlight of the opening ceremony of the XV International AIDS Conference with the theme 'Access for All'. Earlier the celebrities, world leaders, the scientists, the activists, the people living with HIV, the journalists and also the protestors had trickled in filling to capacity the arena and sending the overflow into many other side halls where people watched the ceremony on huge TV screens.

Seventeen thousand people had registered for the conference, which for the first time had interactive leadership sessions and a Global Village. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Premier Shinawatra and Graca Machel were the patrons and also active participants of the Leadership Program dedicated to highlighting and promoting diversity of leadership including from the fields of religion, industry and media, in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The other first, the Global Village, was for community leaders and organizations that could not pay up the $1,000 conference registration fee. Among the celebrities at the opening were actor Richard Gere and Miss Universe 2004 Jennifer Hawkins from Australia. Gere, who is involved in major anti-AIDS work in India got a prolonged ovation as he walked in slowly turning around with his hands together in the greeting of namasthe.

Throughout Shinawatra's speech protestors held up placards with "No more lies", while one heckler screamed 'hypocrite' as Annan spoke. Starting around 1 p.m. there were numerous cultural events, with colourfully caparisoned elephants leading the way. Recognised as a symbol of Thailand, they were also used as the "visible symbol" of ability and power at the conference to indicate the power of all partnerships in the fight against this epidemic.

A discordant and tragic note came out loud and clear, leading to some controversy over the much vaunted theme - Access for All -- as most people including some of the VIPs had left by the time Paisan Sawannawong of the Thai Drug Users' Network got up to speak on 'Access for people living with HIV/AIDS'.

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