HIV Community Based Organization & Civil Service Organization Capacity Building Program
ARE YOU A MEMBER OF A
COMMUNITY BASED
ORGANIZATION?
And do you believe that CBOs:
✓are a basic component of public health?
✓are frequently utilized as vehicles to conduct community health promotion interventions?
✓are increasingly called upon to use evidence-
based research to support HIV advocacy, program
planning, and service delivery?
✓should be seen as competent and worthy
partners in the HIV landscape by sharing leadership
and responsibilities?
✓are strained for time, staffing, and funding – elements that are critical to survival and sustainability?
Sustained Health Initiatives of the Philippines (SHIP) believes in the Community Based
Organizations (CBO).
CBOs are essential in HIV, without which, advocacy & services will have failed to achieve
present gains. We would like to help ensure that HIV CBOs achieve their full potential as
partners and leaders in the HIV landscape.
We at SHIP are happy to present CABLE, our capacity building program for HIV community
based organizations and civil society organizations.
It is a learning platform that provides CBOs the tools, resources, and skills for:
Organization essentials
Community health research
Project management
We believe that these skills are absolutely necessary for the growth and sustainability of the
CBOs, especially as data needs have increased as a result of funders’ interest in more formalized
program accountability, more rigorous monitoring & evaluation, evidence- based decision-
making; and empowered communities demanding much more active roles in setting research
agendas.
The learning begins in August 2020 with a basic online module over 15 weeks. Once a week, for
1-2 hours, learning at your own pace.
The program is absolutely free! We believe that that all CBOs have the potential to be the best they can be! Let’s start now!
Shoot us an email at cable@ship.ph if you and your organization want to be part of the movement!
I
don’t hide my HIV status. I’ve talked about how important visibility is to the
advocacy. But with that visibility comes certain inconveniences. It’s not a
problem or an issue; I call it an inconvenience only because, after eleven
years of being public about my status, it gets exhausting.
I’m
talking about the frequently asked questions that people have the moment they
find out I’m HIV positive. And funny enough, of the many people I meet, the
ones with the most questions — and who ask the following questions — are
people 30 years old and above. The younger generation who find out about my
status don’t even ask these questions. I think that’s a sign of progress. But
this is not a statistic really worth mentioning because this is based on my
personal experience and not data gathered; it’s just a general observation.
Before
we get to the questions, I want to describe what usually happens before they
ask the question. Every time I mention my status, I could do it in a joke or
as-a-matter-of-fact type of way and never to elicit some form of response. I’ve
always tried to normalize being HIV positive in everyday situation.
When
I mention it, the people who do not know will usually make slight gesture — a
quick glance at me, a tilt of the head, a slight jump, ruffled eyebrows — and
then I usually feel their eyes on me, trying to find out if I’m joking or if I
really just confessed it. Often times, they will ask me, “You have HIV?” And I
respond and I tell them I’m open about my status and they ask “Since when?” and
I tell them, “since 2008.”
Seldomly,
they drop the subject. We continue talking about what we were deep in
conversation over but sometimes it goes back to my status.
I
described the whole scenario because I realise there’s still a long way to go
when it comes to normalizing being PLHIV in the country. Nobody responds that
way with diabetics. I have even seen a person admit having Epilepsy and someone
just asked, “Really? Do you take meds? What’s that like?” It was very calmly.
There was no embarrassment or shame.
I
mention I’m HIV positive and suddenly there’s tension in the air.
Is
this stigma? I’m not sure. I’ve been comfortable with my status for so long
because I’ve been surrounded by wonderful people who don’t discriminate against
me for being positive so I don’t know if this is an example of the stigma.
All
I know is that I have to say these things out loud as often as I can, to as
many people as possible, in regular, normal, everyday conversation so that
people would be more accepting of it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Now,
the frequently asked questions. People I talk to who discover I’m HIV positive
will ask certain questions and, many times, they return when it’s just the two
of us so they can ask privately.
This
tells me that there are people who are still afraid to openly show their
curiosity. This tells me that this is still not a topic people talk about with
friends or family; that discussing HIV in public comes with a stigma, a sense
of shame. My big question is why are people afraid to even ask questions?
One of the first questions they usually ask is
how did you know you had HIV? I then
explain my medical history in 2008; how I was getting sick by a major infection
every month from January to July until I finally decided to get the test in
August. I think this is very telling that a lot of people want to know if
there’s a way to tell if someone is positive just by looking at them. There is
none. There is no way to tell if a person has HIV or not just by looking at
them. They ask how does it feel like or if I could tell during that period and
I always tell them you don’t feel a thing when you have HIV. And when you’re
sick, you’re just sick. When they ask this, it tells me they are afraid to take
the test. It tells me they sometimes think they might get it or might have
already gotten it.
It
tells me that we really have to strengthen the advocacy for taking the test. It
is the only way to know if a person has HIV or not.
Another
question they almost always ask is when
and how did you tell your parents/family? This is an important question
because it tells me that people are afraid that if they got it, their family
will not accept them. We always talk about how strong family bonds are amongst
Filipinos but when it comes to HIV, we are afraid to test those bonds.
I
have had strangers tell me they suspect their brother or cousin or child has
HIV but they are messaging me because they don’t know how to tell them they
suspect, or in some cases, that they actually know. But then again, I have also
come across PLHIV who were kicked out of the house when their family discovered
they were positive.
Do you know who gave it to you is also a usual question,
which I interpret as an interest in one’s sexual activities. Is there an
assumption that it’s so many that I wouldn’t know? Or, does the question
entails asking if I’ve confronted the person about it? I guess, in order to
build a complete picture of this story, one needs someone to blame. I have a
suspect and I informed this person right after I was diagnosed and I have left
it at that. I have never bothered trying to find out who gave it to me.
At
the end of the day, I am as much to blame for my infection as the person. I
suspect we both didn’t know and we were both reckless enough to have sex
without protection.
One of the first few questions people ask after finding out about my status is Are the treatments free? Yes. The Department of Health gives the ARVs for free, and the PhilHealth Outpatient Treatment (OHAT) Package is there to provide the means to bridge the gaps in supply. PhilHealth membership allows PLHIVs benefits as long as one is on ARVs, and is up to date on contributions — whether as a self-employed individual contributor, someone who is employed, someone benefitting from the indigent or sponsored membership, or is a dependent of a member. OHAT benefits also depend on your treatment center — some public hubs cover all labs, some cover only a few of the essentials. When you are enrolled in a private hub with expensive labs, sometimes you only get limited coverage and a lot will be out of pocket or under one’s HMO. Immediately, people are thinking about what life is going to be like after diagnosis. Some people still ask if there’s a cure. There’s none. There are news reports coming out every two or three months about some study that might be on the right track to a vaccine or a cure but we are still far away yet.
When
they go through the cycle of the above questions, and they see that I’m
completely comfortable with all of this, then they start to open up. They talk
about their fears, the things they’ve done, and they ask about whether they
could get it and then they’d describe what they did. They talk about all the
times they did it without protection. It’s an outpouring of emotions.
I
don’t know. Maybe seeing someone and talking to someone with HIV allowed them
to confront their issues and their fears. Hopefully, it forces them to take the
test and to start using protection.
It
really informs me about the kind of society that we have. This repression and
shame over something that is natural and commonplace; it’s just hidden, not
talked about in public.
It’s
kind of annoying for me. After eleven years and answering these very questions
over and over again in public forums, on television programs, magazine and
online interviews and it is all the same answers but I have to say over and
over again.
Because
we still don’t know and we’re still afraid to ask and we’re still afraid to
open the conversation.