Raymond Syms
Facial expressions can reveal a negative response to HIV/AIDS. However, a relatively new campaign is using our most expressive body part to get a positive message across.
The ‘Nobody Has The Truth Written on Their Face. Protect Yourself. Use a Condom” campaign – the ‘Faces’ campaign for short – has been highly successful in Panama.
“The campaign has proved to be an unqualified success with widespread coverage on posters at bus stops, on the main youth-targeted website and extensive coverage in the mass media – especially on the local press and radio,” said John Fleming, the Federation’s Regional Health Delegate at the Panama Regional Delegation.
The Federation now hopes a Caribbean campaign, launched December 1 (World AIDS Day) in the Cayman Islands, is just as successful. The Cayman Islands leg is a joint effort between the Federation, British Red Cross Cayman Islands Branch (CIRC), and the Cayman AIDS Foundation (CAF).
CIRC volunteers, CAF members, media, non-governmental organizations, Minister of Health and Human Services, Anthony Eden, and students of John Gray High School involved in the Caribbean Red Cross’ “Together We Can” youth peer education programme, were present for the launch at the CIRC headquarters.
Speaking at the launch, Fleming said the Panama campaign, which involves the Federation, the Panamanian Red Cross and the country office of international advertising agency McCann Erickson, has reached over 500,000 people in a ten-month period.
It has been “very positively received by the local and regional network of people living with HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS, UNICEF and most importantly by the target audience.”
Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala will soon see some new “faces” on their buses, billboards and newspaper ads, he continued.
Fleming said the Federation does recognize “that condoms and their promotion and consistent and correct use are NOT a panacea but rather just one means of addressing the spread of STIs, HIV and AIDS. Gender inequality calls into question the real value of condoms in settings where the woman’s ability to insist on safe sex is undermined by a host of external and entrenched forces such as economic dependence and violence”. He noted, however, that the campaign has an important role to play in getting the message across to sexually active persons, and thanked CIRC and CAF “for their vision and commitment in launching this campaign.”
Also speaking at the launch were Julia Brothwell, coordinator of the Federation’s Port of Spain Sub Regional Office in Trinidad; Jennison Nunez, CAF president; and Carolina Ferreira, CIRC programmes manager and CAF operations manager.
Brothwell spoke of HIV/AIDS worldwide statistics, noting that the Caribbean has the second highest prevalence rate with 2.3% of adults infected.
“AIDS has become the main cause of death for the Caribbean adult population of 15 to 49 years” she said, with Haiti being the worse case with life expectancy being decreased by eight years. The Bahamas, Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago have also seen life expectancy being reduced by four years. She called for the fight to be waged at the local level.
“Individuals, governments, civil society, private sector groups, international and non-governmental organizations must fully commit and participate in scaling up the response…”
Jennison Nunez said he has faith Cayman Islands will prove its worth as the starting point for the Caribbean campaign, and called on the wider society to “take a stance against stigma and discrimination; to come together and declare that it has no place in this society, so that no one is denied their right to have a voice.”
Carolina Ferreira said the campaign was timely as the CAF only recently embarked on a condom social marketing programme with Populations Services International. She said as the campaign was essentially visual, the posters will be distributed to schools, local businesses, and the print media.
“With time, and as the campaign develops and we launch new and ‘more familiar’ faces, our aim will be to target more public areas, such as the bus stands throughout the island.”
The Red Cross Societies of Dominica, Antigua, Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica have expressed some interest in the campaign.