Positive People Speaking Out in Public

About forty people took part in the workshop "Positive people speaking out". When I came into the room skills- building exercises were in full swing. The facilitator was using the APN+ training manual for positive speakers and - though he said he had been given this task at the last moment and was not prepared - did his best to create an impromptu session of exercises. It worked, too - people were clearly enjoying themselves in an exercise of "telling the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you". After sharing their horror stories group members identified what makes a story "good", a story the audience can relate to. The atmosphere in the group was great. In the break, I asked people about their motivation for coming and what they enjoyed about the session. To my surprise, the first two people I spoke to were not PLWHA at all. "I am not a person living with HIV' said a woman from PNG. "I am a nurse working in the diocese. I came here because I want to know how I can help HIV positive people to speak openly. My people are afraid to "come out". I have never seen a person with HIV before! I want to know how I can help PLWHA to help others? When I first came into the group I was afraid that they would not accept me because I am not infected. But when they heard why I came they accepted me and I felt free". An Indian Government worker said the same thing. "No one dares to speak out where I work. Everyone asks why don't we have positive speakers? But the atmosphere is too bad. The first people to speak out will have so many problems. They need to be real heroes. I want to know how I can help making positive speakers happen". The third time I did speak to an HIV positive young man from Australia. He said, "I too have never seen so many people with HIV. It was my choice not to seek out this group; this was part of my own process of coming to terms with my infection. But this is absolutely great. I was most impressed with how varied people's motivation is to speak out, and this added to my own motivation. I feel I am getting reading to take on an active role as a speaker".