If one is looking for a positive role model of a person living with HIV, as well as the an example of what a Red Cross volunteer can achieve, you need look no further than Daysi Marlene Rivera.
This vivacious 41-year-old mother of three from the capital, Tegucigalpa, has become a standard-bearer not only for the Honduran Red Cross (CRH), but also for the thousands living with HIV in her country. It is hard to imagine a more eloquent argument against stigma and discrimination than Daysi.
Daysi has become known on the international stage, having been a CRH representative at the 14th International Conference on AIDS in Barcelona in July 2002.
"Barcelona was a wonderfully rich experience for me. For me it is important that I can speak out on behalf of all those people who cannot make their voices heard, because they don't want people to know that they are HIV-positive," she says.
Daysi discovered her HIV-positive status in 1988, after her husband donated blood, which was found to contain the virus. He died five years ago.
"I have to carry on for the sake of my three children. They no longer have a father. But I am still alive," she says.
Daysi got involved in the Red Cross through a friend, Nelson Silva, coordinator of the Honduran Red Cross HIV/AIDS programme, who invited her to attend a number of meetings. She began work as a volunteer two years ago.
In that role, she works a counsellor to people who are HIV-positive, gives talks to schoolchildren and university students and raises awareness within the ranks of the Honduran Red Cross itself. It is a role she has taken to with great enthusiasm.
"The Red Cross is like smoking - it's addictive. It has given me so much," Daysi says, pointing out the importance for someone like her to be working in an organisation that fights against stigma and discrimination.
For she believes that in Honduras, as in many parts of the world, people living with HIV are discriminated against on a daily basis. There are 17,000 people in the country registered as being HIV-positive. The World Health Organisation estimates that the figure is nearer 60,000.
"You are often refused treatment in hospitals; in many cases, your family rejects you and friends desert you," she says. "The Red Cross is one of the organisations fighting to end this stigma."
"That is my motivation - being able to say to people: 'I'm HIV-positive too, and I'm full of life. I'm still a person in my own right," Daysi says.
"Being HIV-positive does not mean you are going to die today, tomorrow or whenever. You can still carry on working and playing an important role."
She says that accepting one's status requires a change in lifestyle - she points out that the Spanish word for AIDS - SIDA - is remarkably similar to the word for life - vida. "It's like being born again - a new way of thinking."
"It gives me great satisfaction to see people moving on in this way," she says.
Related links:
World AIDS Day 2002
Reducing the impact of HIV/AIDS
Central America: appeals and information bulletins
Honduran Red Cross
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