discrimination – HIV stigmafighter

Hero of Hope – Zang Choi

31 January 202510 February 2025hivstigmafighter

My lovely people,

Nelson Mandela once said “A winner is a dreamer who never gives up”. I continue to dream of a World free of Stigma and I know that soon this dream will come true for me to be a winner. But I am not the only one having this dream as we all know that HIV stigma and discrimination are global issues, so we need to continue joining our forces as much as we can.

Last year when visiting my HIV allies in South Korea I realized that HIV stigma is still very high in South Korea, so even today you will hardely see people open about HIV. Luckily, grassroots organizations are working really hard to fight HIV stigma and discrimination. I am happy to be connected to them and support them in whatever way I can.

There are many ways to convey a positive image of people living with HIV, one of them is Stories of Hope. What started as a small local initiative has now grown into a platform of global Heroes of hope who are eager to share their superpowers that helped them to break HIV stigma. Thanks to the digital world, I was happy to connect with a Korean HIV artivist, Zang Choi who is our newest Hero of Hope!

Zang Choi is living positively and uses their visual arts to create a space that encourages young people to discuss really important issues related to HIV and the LGBTQIA+ community in Korea. Through their HIV artivism, Zang Choi is truly committed to bring much needed change to break HIV stigma in Korea. Read Zang Choi’s story here!

HIV artivism is a beautiful tool to use to bring awareness about HIV and break the stigma. I am so happy to be connected to Zang Choi and so many others who fight HIV stigma using HIV artivism. Those that know me, are also well aware that there are so many ways how HIV artivism can reach parts of the HIV community, including young people of the LGBTQIA+ community, that are hard to reach through conventional approaches. We have to use all approaches available to break HIV stigma!

I am proud to contribute to HIV artivism through Eric the Dragking or interactive story telling such as Urugendo (A HIV journey). I am always happy to connect and explore with you how we can increase the impact of HIV artivism around the world!

Remember, we cannot achieve my dream of a World free of HIV stigma alone, we need to join our hands and passion for arts as much as we can worldwide.

I am proud that that Zang choi is joining our Community of Heroes of Hope. Thank you very much! 매우 감사합니다

Share your talent to break HIV stigma!

Peace,

Eliane

World AIDS day 2023

1 December 202310 February 2025hivstigmafighter

Today is World AIDS Day and the theme is “Let communities Lead”.

We have been facing HIV stigma over the past 40 years. While nowadays in many parts of the world people living with HIV can live a healthy and long life as long as they access good health services. At the same time let us not ignore the fact that “STIGMA KILLS” and contines to harm more people.

In 2021 Stories of Hope started as a locally-led initiative in our fight against HIV stigma and discrimination. We now represent a global community of talented people living with HIV and, since recently, our HIV allies. On Stories of Hope they share their stories about breaking HIV stigma. Today we are very proud to introduce our fabulous Hero of Hope Luis Noguera as they share their incredible fight against HIV stigma.

Thank you Luis!

Read more about HIV Stigmafighter, the driving force behind Stories of Hope.

Our HIV community

18 July 20238 March 2025hivstigmafighter

The burden of the hiv epidemic has never only been carried by the nearly 85 million people infected by HIV since the beginning of the epidemic. The pain, loss and grief of dealing with and our fight against the HIV epidemic is shared by so many more; Orphans of parents that passed away who are discriminated, family members whose relations are strained, caregivers of people living with HIV, activists campaigning for PrEP access, and so on…

Two years after the launch of Stories of Hope on Mandela day 18th of July 2021, we would like to pay honour to these caregivers and the millions of people affected by HIV.

Nelson Mandela once said ‘If we are to accomplish anything in this world it will in equal measure be due to the work and achievement of others’. Therefore, let us remember their struggle and celebrate their contributions as well in our fight against the HIV epidemic and on-going stigma and discrimination.

In honour of the wise words of Nelson Mandela, as of now we will also bring their inspiring stories to the Stories of Hope platform. Because in the end, they are the biggest allies of people living with HIV and their stories are equally important to be recorded and told.

So, we are extremely proud to introduce Daria, our very first Hero of Hope who is not living with HIV herself. According to Daria, “what matters is that you can help others” to claim access to health services and create a HIV stigma free society.

We hope there will be many more people like Daria to join our growing community of Heroes of Hope. What connects us all is to realise a world where people living with HIV are healthy citizens free from stigma.

Ambassador of Hope

18 July 202225 August 2022hivstigmafighter

Today we are celebrating one year Stories of Hope! And we have achieved so much since our official launch on 18 July 2021, Mandela Day. Early last year, we started Stories of Hope with two Heroes, and since then our community has grown to eleven Heroes already!

You may remember that last year we highlighted the important role that Nelson Mandela fulfilled throughout his life for vulnerable people facing stigma of any kind.

Today, on Nelson’s birthday, we are proud to share a touching interview with our friend Adam Castillejo, and a true Ambassador of Hope for the global HIV community. We do hope that Adam will also be an inspiration to all of us!

Meanwhile we are very busy preparing for AIDS2022 as next week around this time we will be travelling to Montreal. We are so excited to connect to fellow activists, role models, and so many more inspiring people.

We also set ourselves a target, namely to capture and share at least one new Story of Hope on each conference day! To make this happen, we really need YOU!

So reach out to us and visit the Stories of Hope booth GVE013 at AIDS2022!

One big HIV family

27 May 202226 January 2023hivstigmafighter

My lovely people, have I already told you how glad I am to be open about my status? I get to know more and more fabulous people in our HIV community wherever I go. And I love the way my HIV community keeps on growing. When we fight HIV stigma we need as many allies as possible.

In January this year I got in touch with a photographer from Dublin, Steven Doyle. He is not HIV positive, but he was a nurse in Romania during the height of AIDS epidemic in the 90’s where he worked with many children living with HIV and AIDS abandoned by their parents. Steven was taking care of them in hospitals and even adopted one of them, Nicu.

Eventually Nicu died at the age of 27. Ever since Steven’s work in Romania, he is vigorously fighting HIV stigma and discrimination through his activism and photography. His story moved me and we have so many things in common, see for example my story on HIV medication exchange for people living with HIV in Romania.

Inspired by Steven’s story I decided to join his project where he is collecting stories and portraits of people living with HIV all over the World. I consider Steven my newest HIV STIGMA family member.

So, in May Steven invited me and my husband for the photo exhibition in Dublin, Ireland. I was very excited and also curious to get to know the other HIV models. And I found that at least 3 of them are my EATG colleagues, what a small World!

In Ireland I was able to connect with new people like wonderful Gerald, who introduced me to the big HIV network in Ireland, for example HIV Ireland. One day he also showed us around in his family’s magical garden where he told us so many stories about edible and medicinal plants, what an experience! He showed us the beautiful Kildare Cathedral where I learned much about Saint Brigid of Kildare, a very important Irish Female Saint. Gerald is truly doing a lot for the HIV community in Ireland.

Enjoying the photo exhibition with Gerry

And then came the surprise invitation of Robbie and the Fabulous Drag Queen Veda Lady who are the hosts of the Poz vibe Podcast for people living with HIV, their friends, family and allies. There I also met Jordie, and my ally Steven was also part of the podcast. While all our stories are unique and inspiring, we are all connected by beating our common enemy “HIV STIGMA”. We shared many tears and laughter that afternoon. Overall, through our common experiences we realised that we are heading into the right direction and that our efforts are not in vain. Talking about HIV openly is definitely the right way to normalise HIV.

Yet, I would like to say one word of caution as, to me, the migrant HIV community is still not vocal enough, whether in Ireland or my own country the Netherlands. So I do hope my and other stories will keep on inspiring them to join us.

I would like to thank Steven for introducing me to my allies in Ireland and helping the HIV community to share our stories through our beautiful faces. Also hugs and kisses to Veda Lady and Robbie Lawlor for working so hard to make sure the positive voices of people living with HIV are being heard by the World. And Jordi, thank you so much for inspiring the young and queer world to living a fabulous positive life. Last but not least, I am thanking generous Gerald for his contribution to HIV Stigmafighter’s work in Burundi!

Let us keep up the good work, the world needs more people like us. Feel welcome to join our battle because HIV STIGMA MUST FALL!

Peace,

Eliane

Going global at AIDS2022

9 May 20228 March 2025hivstigmafighter

We proudly announce that Stories of Hope will be part of the Global Village at AIDS2022 in Montreal, Canada, which will be held between 29 July and 02 August 2022.

So, nearly one year after our launch, succesfully collecting and showcasing the stories of 11 Heroes and distributing exclusive Stories of Hope postcards through various healthcare providers in the Netherlands, Stories of Hope will go global!

At the Global Village we will:

Showcase three original portraits of our Heroes of Hope, and share the Stories of Hope concept with the wider HIV/ AIDS community
Share sample health cards with Global Village visitors and discuss roll-out of more versions in other countries
Organise rapid story telling workshops to record more inspiring stories of talented People Living with HIV/ AIDS visiting the Global Village
Create new Stories of Hope to be launched during AIDS2022

If you will be visiting AIDS2022 and are interested to share your Story of Hope or want to learn more about how you can contribute to reducing HIV stigma in your country, get in touch!

Precious Powerwoman

8 March 20228 March 2025hivstigmafighter

Today we celebrate International women’s Day.

As women, how are we doing? How well are we in seizing power in a male-dominated World?

Maya ANGELOU once said:” My mission in life is not merely to survive but to thrive and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor and some style”.

If we want to fulfil her mission, we must continue to fight for equal rights for women every day. It is up to us to create a world…

Where we can thrive, where nothing will stop us from achieving our goals,

that protects our dignity with passion, and

where we show compassion, allowing no space for discrimination or stigmatisation.

Let us stay focused on our mission with humor and style!

For Stories of Hope we are proudly sharing the amazing story of young powerwoman Precious who turned her pain into courage to never let HIV stigma stand in her way. Please welcome Precious as a hero of hope!

Happy International Women’s Day 2022. #BreakTheBias

Peace,

Eliane

World AIDS day 2021

1 December 20218 March 2025hivstigmafighter

It’s world AIDS day and, although AIDS continues to kill people and people living with hiv/ AIDS continue to face inequalities, there is a growing number of stories of hope.

This week I met two more people cured of HIV. While they highlighted how they experienced love from others whilst battling cancer and living with hiv, they also received hate and judgement. Stigma is still a big issue. Yet, their stories fill us with hope; that one day we will end hiv and AIDS, and that we must begin our journey by ending stigma and inequalities based on gender, income and race.

While conveying their message of hope, I am also very proud to contribute to the fight against inequalities by sharing two new stories of hope today. I know that Anna and Perry will inspire you with their own stories about overcoming hiv stigma by using their talents.

Don’t let hiv stand in your way!

Peace,

Eliane

Meet our Heroes!

18 July 20218 March 2025hivstigmafighter

Today, Mandela Day 2021, we proudly present our very first eight Stories of Hope! Since we started to work with our Heroes in April this year, we collected stories related to HIV, depression and vitiligo. Our aim is to grow Stories of Hope into a platform where people facing stigma are able to share their unique experience on how stigma can be overcome through their talents.

There is no better moment to share our first collection of Stories of Hope than Mandela Day as Mandela continues to be a big inspiration to the world. In the spirit of Mandela’s legacy, we truly believe that Stories of Hope will give people inspiration to fight stigma and bring positive change in our communities. In the words of the great Nelson Mandela: “A winner is a dreamer who never gives up.”

Peace,

Eliane

You people

6 November 2020hivstigmafighter

I am born dark brown although many people prefer to call my colour black. OK, then I am black! Do you have a problem with that?

It’s shocking how ignorant people remain about racism! In a week I experienced two cases, and I will share the most bizarre example here as it happened in my neighbourhood with someone I knew for over 10 years and with whom I did share joyful moments in the past. Until recently we always smiled at eachother, but a few days ago he finally removed the mask and showed his true self.

My friend dropped by and parked her car along the street in a way that we see many times and is totally legal. Despite this, he walked up to her and ordered her that she should not park there. Meanwhile across the street another car was parked which obstructed a footpath and access to a public wastebin. So my friend asked him if he also ordered that car owner to park somewhere else.

The owner of this car got away without a reprimand

When she told me what happened, my husband and I were very curious to find out why he ordered her to remove her car. So we decided it was best to have a neighbourly chat about it. I went to his place and explained why I was at his door. Immediately he started shouting ”I told your friend not to park there. She said she would be gone for 5 minutes but she was gone for an hour”.

I asked him “Do you tell everybody who parks there, not to park there?” And he said that he doesn’t talk to others. So I became more curious and asked why he decided to confront my guest today. He responded “Are you accusing me that I stopped her because she is a black woman?” I told him not to put these words in my mouth, and that I didn’t mention her skin colour. I also told him that it would have made sense for him to talk to both cars owners which made him more angry, saying “You people make something big out of such a small thing, you are making an elephant out of a mouse. I am not listening to your nonsense. Does your husband know what you are doing to me?”

As I felt he now tried to shame me, I responded “Wait a minute, what am I exactly doing to you? I came to talk in good faith, but now you seem to turn this into something else. I am not hiding anything from my husband. You can go and ask him yourself if he is aware of what I am doing”. By now he was furious, telling me to “Go away with your nonsense!” before slamming his door.

I was left in shock as I respected him for 12 years. His decision to deny me the opportunity to explain how I experienced this situation, finally showed the real person hiding behind this smile. Looking back at what happened, to me it seems that he had been waiting a long time to share his true feelings about “us people”.

No doubt that one day he will understand that by denying “us people” to share our experience he is trying to silence or shame us into not mentioning the obvious racism that we experience so often. But if I see wrong happening, I will not be silent and continue to speak up.

Peace,

Eliane