With Hope and Help

This series of three slim paperback publications provides information about what it is like to have HIV/AIDS, and is meant to be used by group leaders and discussion facilitators in concert with the "With Hope and Help" video. One of the three is a manual on self-care intended to guide people with HIV/AIDS and their caregivers. It addresses misconceptions about the disease through chapters focusing on concrete issues such as "finding out", staying well, nutrition, herbal medicine, love and intimacy, disclosure, transmission, and facing prejudice. A second document covers these same topics, but is framed to guide facilitators of discussions that focus on what it is like to live with the disease. That is, it includes a section about the video itself, ways to prepare one's audience, ways to deal with reactions to the video, quiz questions, and detailed ideas for group activities. One such activity involves asking the group to look at various drawings that might capture what "disclosure" would mean to them, were they to be HIV-positive and faced with the prospect of telling others. The third manual, which includes the same substantive material as other two manuals, is intended to promote understanding of people with HIV/AIDS as they interact with their communities. Designed for friends, neighbours, relatives, employers, and health care providers, it highlights the social, physical, and emotional problems faced by HIV-positive community members. It also includes group activities that focus on ways of creating a supportive environoment for people living with HIV/AIDS. For example, one activity sheet details an interview game that asks one group member to imagine that they are one of the HIV-positive people featured in the video. The "interviewer" then asks "what is the thing that gives you the most happiness in your life now?" and "what has made you feel worst in your life?".

All three materials are available free of charge in Thai and English.

The "With Hope and Help" video is available in local languages, with English subtitles. Videos specific to Cambodia (30 mins), China (23 mins), Lao PDR (23 mins), Thailand (35 mins), and Vietnam (25 mins) may be ordered, free of charge, from the UNICEF Regional Office for East Asia and the Pacific (EAPRO) (see contact information, below).

UNICEF
Office of the Regional Director for East Asia and Pacific
P.O. Box 2-154
Bangkok 10200, Thailand
Tel.: 66 2 356.9499/280.5931
Fax: 66 2 280.3563/280.3564
[email protected]