United States Embassy gives helping hand in HIV fight

The United States Embassy in Kingston yesterday provided funding totalling more than US$58,000 (J$4.9m) to projects that will help to fight the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS in Jamaica.

US ambassador to Jamaica, Pamela Bridgewater, said the funding, which was made available to five local institutions as grants, will be used to train individuals who are going to interact with people across the island who are living with HIV/AIDS.

"They are going to be (providing) training in our vocational areas and in our churches ... and they are going to be training women released from prison, because we know that they are vulnerable to this disease," Bridgewater said.

Seeking to underscore the importance of fighting the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS, one woman who represented one of the five institutions told of her ordeal after it was revealed that she was HIV-positive.

The woman, who is a member of the Female Prisoners Welfare Programme (FPWP) Hibiscus Jamaica - an organisation seeking to help reformed drug couriers - said her problem started in prison after her HIV status was revealed.

"I was battered all over, beaten by the other inmate," she said, fighting back tears.

chased out

Upon her release, the woman said she and her children took up residence in a community, but were soon chased out after word of her HIV status leaked.

"They started on the children, then myself. We had to run away from that place," she continued.

"We are in another place now where nobody knows, so at the minute I am a bit ok," she added.

Bishop Ronald Webster, head of Ronmar International Ministries, which also received financial assistance from the US Embassy, singled out the Christian community as one section of the society that "ostracises" persons living with HIV/AIDS.

"The Church should provide the avenue by which persons feel a sense of acceptance as individuals who are created in the image and likeness of God and who, themselves, need a sense of hope for tomorrow," Webster said.

"We have seen an increase in the number of suicide cases in our island because people have a sense of hopelessness," he added.

He said the US Embassy's assistance was critical at this time because many areas in western Jamaica are seeing an increase in infections among young people, especially among the 15-24 age group.

The other institutions that benefited from the grant funding are the Grata Foundation, the National Council on Drug Abuse, and Northern Caribbean University.