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AIDS
Communication – an international view
http://www.comminit.com/
Dr. Barbara O. de Zalduondo
bdez@tvtassociates.com
Project Director, TvT Associates/The Synergy Project
1101 Vermont Ave. NW,Washington, DC 20005
Tel: (202) 842-2939; Fax: 202-842-7646
-
What is an “international” perspective?
What appears to be different/particular about communication for
development when the issue is HIV/AIDS?
If this is a turning point, where should we go from here?
What is an “international” perspective?
Comparative
Distant from the grass-roots, from the most important locus of action
Opportunity to
focus on the “forest”
A
privilege and a duty
To listen, hear,
and try to understand
To review and
apply lessons from the past
To be vigilant
about respecting and enforcing values of participation, autonomy and
voice
HIV/AIDS Communication: Special Features
The HIV/AIDS community
There IS an
HIV/AIDS community (solidarity)
The
community has a culture (language, norms)
It’s all “us”
Involvement of
PLHA, as agents and beneficiaries
Views and needs of
PLHA are key; PLHA in the driver’s seat
No
specialty/organization/individual can do it alone – partnership is the
only effective way
Honors
relationships, community, and emotions, not just technical analysis
and data
e.g. Names Quilt
HIV/AIDS requires attention to sexuality, not just sex and its
biological consequences
Meanings
- Sex-gender system ties sex into personhood
- Meanings are “culturally constructed and socially reproduced”
- Interwoven
Disconnects
between ideal and real behavior
-E.g., “norms” of fidelity that aren’t really norms, because there is
no punishment for infractions
Requires grasp of sexual culture AND health beliefs, in the context of
gender, age and SES
HIV/AIDS Related Stigma and Discrimination
“The term stigma, then, will be used to refer to an attribute that is
deeply discrediting...” causing a person’s very identity to be “spoiled
(Goffman, 1963:3).
...“a powerful discrediting and tainting social label that radically
changes the way individuals view themselves and are viewed as persons”
(Alonzo and Reynolds, p. 304)
AIDS-related stigma... refers to prejudice, discounting, discrediting,
and discrimination directed at people perceived to have AIDS or HIV and
at the individuals, groups, and communities with which they are
associated. (Herek, Mitnick et al. 1998).
Double burden of stigma
Stigma associated
w/ HIV/AIDS
Stigma associated
w/ vulnerable populations
-IDU
-Men and women with multiple sexual partners
-MSM
-Poverty
Stigma complicates
all aspects of programming
- Reaching people at risk
- Targeting
- Mobilizing support and resources for services
- Engaging people to learn and take action
Vicious
cycle of stigma
Silence
is a VERB
Problems for communication
Where is the boundary between “Cultural Appropriateness” – and
complicity with the silence?
How to direct and tailor communication to and for people most in need,
without augmenting the stigma?
How to build cultural resonance in culturally diverse and complex
places, countries, and regions?
HIV/AIDS Communication: Special Features
The most effective path isn’t the obvious path
Identify, label
and exclude/quarantine the infected, v. taking personal responsibility
for protection
- Manage w/ medicine v. mobilize communities
- Silence v. Openness
- Sanction v. solidarity and compassion
- Command and control v. participation and human rights
- Fear v. hope
Every new audience
has to work through these alternatives, to embrace effective
approaches
- Can’t skip or speed this process, or deliver it in capsules
