Jean-Luc Martinage, IFRC, in Cali, Colombia
Her name is Lina-Marcela. The 16-year-old smiling resident of the orphanage for children living with HIV run by the Fundamor Foundation in the outskirts of Cali cannot remember when she started living there, as she was just a baby when her parents died of AIDS.
Baby Valerie Sofia, the youngest resident who has just turned one, shares a similar story - she came to the orphanage the very next day after she was born.
Some 55 children live in the well-equipped centre on a permanent basis, while more than 100 others come to the foundation during the day for dental treatment, nutrition advice and psychosocial support, using alternative and natural therapies such as music and water.
“Many children living with HIV are stigmatised in their environment and at school, some of them have been physically or mentally abused so it is crucial they can express themselves and feel better,” explains Guillermo Arango, the director of Fundamor.
Fighting stigma
The centre also manages to avoid isolating children by sending the eldest to nearby schools, after running information sessions with children and parents to explain that there is no risk at all for their own children to study and play with children living with HIV.
“We even went further by inviting children from the community to attend classes in our kindergarten, which is another way to prevent children living with HIV to be isolated and further stigmatised,” he adds.
Over the past year, Fundamor and the Valle del Cauca branch of the Colombian Red Cross decided to enter into a partnership. This happened on the occasion of the national forum for children living with HIV in Colombia that was held at the Foundation in September. Around 45 NGOs attended, as well as government representatives and about 100 children.
Lina-Marcela was one of the teenagers involved in organizing the event, and that’s when she met with Red Cross volunteers who helped with the logistics of the forum and also took the youngest children to the Red Cross branch so that they can see all the activities. Sharing knowledge
Now, Lina-Marcela is thinking about eventually joining the Red Cross as a volunteer “because the Red Cross helps us share the knowledge on HIV”, she says. The director of Fundamor also would like to develop new partnerships with the Red Cross.
“There is a need to prepare our oldest children to face the outside world, and the Red Cross can provide us with a useful support,” he says.
Working with the Fundamor foundation is just one example of the many partnerships Colombian Red Cross is involved with, especially with representatives of people living with HIV.
Living with HIV
“I am myself openly living with HIV,” says Dr. Yacid Estrada, the national coordinator of the HIV programme. “We are calling for more people living with HIV to involve themselves with the Red Cross and become volunteers as peer education is key to fight HIV and the stigma and discrimination against people living with the virus.”
Luis Alejandro Agudelo, a volunteer from Medellin, is also openly living with HIV and involved in the HIV programme in his branch. He strongly believes people living with HIV need to be empowered and that involving themselves within the Red Cross is a good way to fight discrimination also from the inside. “The prevention message is even stronger when it comes from someone living with HIV,” he says.
While men who have sex with men remain the highest cause of HIV infection in Colombia, many women are also highly vulnerable to being infected since they sometimes have no control over their sex life and are often subjected to sexual and psychological violence. This is why the Colombian Red Cross is also providing support to groups such as Huellas de Arte, who are working on HIV prevention and supporting women living with HIV.
Invisible victims
“Women have been the invisible victims of HIV,” explains Mayerline Vera, who created the foundation eight years ago in the Colombian capital, Bogota.
Mayerline’s foundation first sought the support of the Red Cross when it decided to develop activities in other parts of the country.
“I realized that stigma and discrimination against women was even greater in smaller cities. We did not have the logistical capacities, especially for psychosocial support, while the Red Cross already had those capacities in smaller cities, so we teamed up with them for the benefit of everyone,” she says.
“No organization, even one as strong as the Red Cross Red Crescent, can improve the HIV situation on its own,” says Julie Hoare, health and social services coordinator for the Americas at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
“This is why the IFRC encourages partnerships at all levels and the examples of Colombia shows that this approach is successful and should be repeated in other parts of the world as well.”