AIDS Education, Prevention, and Awareness Programme

One element of this programme involves giving television viewers across Papua New Guinea a chance to see first-hand what it is like to live with HIV. Patient Trainer/Senior Counselor at Anglicare STOP AIDS, Helen Samilo, is a young woman who has been living with HIV/AIDS for approximately 10 years. In May 2007, "Helen's Story" began airing on the national television channel, EMTV. It follows the life of the then-25 year-old Papua New Guinean. Produced in a diary format, the programme enables Ms. Samilo to talk about her daily experiences as a person living with HIV, looking at how it affects her life and her relationships, as well as how she copes with the various challenges related to the infection. She also looks at the support system that is available to her, both from her family and from the community. The programme is narrated in tok pisin, the local version of pidgin English spoken in Papua New Guinea, with subtitles in English. "Helen's Story" ran for an initial season lasting approximately 10 weeks. Subsequently, the 6 episodes were combined into a 60-minute presentation that will be aired as a complete programme on EMTV and also made available to the public. The goal is to get the message about HIV to a larger segment of the population, challenging the stigma associated with HIV infection.

Entertainment is a core strategy for engaging and educating youth. In June 2008, Anglicare StopAIDS PNG launched its Tokaut Aids 2008 concert at its church grounds. Prior to the concert, Ms. Samilo and Anglicare's senior peer education officer worked for a 2-month period with a youth group from ATS settlement at Eight-Mile to write music and perform songs which are designed to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS issues. Helen Samilo and Charles Essyhafo of Nokondi Nama Band performed their hit songs alongside Anglicare's youth band. Together they got the crowd dancing. Other entertainment included a drama team performance, poems, and songs from the adult literacy programme, and a speech from Anglicare's national director and education awareness prevention manager. Ms. Samilo also spoke, stressing that HIV is not a deadly disease but, rather, a manageable one. She said that all people - whether HIV/AIDS-free or already living with the virus - should be actively participating in the fight against the spread of the disease. She urged a commitment to train caregivers and counsellors to provide HIV-positive people with a caring environment with healthy balanced meals and lots of love and support. The adult literacy class and Anglican Church also set up stalls with arts, crafts, food, and drinks on sale for those who attended. Anglicare will run a series of concerts throughout the year to continue encouraging youth to speak out and voice their messages through music. "We at Anglicare believe expressing forms of youth popular culture through audio-visual educational entertainment is instrumental in providing HIV/AIDS education, prevention and information to young Papua New Guineans," the multimedia coordinator of Anglicare said.

Interpersonal communication is central to Anglicare STOP AIDS' efforts to ensure better access to necessary care, including ARVs. In addition to the one-on-one counselling provided by Anglicare, Ms. Samilo is seeking to extend services for rural health through peer-to-peer communication. The idea is that, because of stigma and discrimination in Papua New Guinea, there is a need for HIV-positive people to pass on information wherever they meet in rural areas, as well as at the drop-in centres. In addition to food, these centres offer basic information on HIV/AIDS, care and counselling, youth health services, and home-based care.

HIV/AIDS.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is estimated to have the highest levels of HIV infection in the Pacific region, with young women and girls facing the highest risk. Ms. Samilo reports that, while almost every province in PNG has heard of the HIV virus, remote areas still lack proper information that would enable them to access better health services for people living with HIV. In this context, Anglicare StopAIDS PNG was formed as a national organisation and is, in the words of its director, "one major service provider in HIV & AIDS work in PNG....Anglicare StopAIDS PNG is so far the only organization in PNG that has gone ahead and employed five PLHIV [people living with HIV] on full time basis and Helen is one of them."

In March 2008, Helen Samilo was awarded the U.S. State Department Secretary's International Women of Courage Award in recognition of her efforts to champion human and equal rights in her communities. In presenting the award, the US ambassador to PNG said she was a role model for Papua New Guineans and Pacific Islanders affected by the disease.