Written by: Leo Schenk and Gurmit Singh
Abstract: The fact that HIV prevention initiatives are likely to fail without the involvement of communities of people living with and affected by HIV is well known. Internationally, there are a variety of intervention programs designed to address this problem with a wide range of outcomes. Frequently, sustainable approaches are hampered by entrenched stigma and discrimination towards people living with HIV. This paper describes Poz&Proud in the Netherlands, a continuous community empowerment initiative that exemplifies how gay men living with HIV addressed this problem. It outlines the project context, rationale and design, and examines how Poz&Proud used the Internet to support real-time events to overcome the stigma and discrimination that prevented their community from enjoying and accessing rights to sexual, mental health and emotional well being. We argue that new digitally supported approaches, like Poz&Proud, can challenge the entrenched stigma and discrimination facing communities of people living with and affected by HIV. This is because Poz&Proud’s approach connects with the lived realities of people living with and affected by HIV through ongoing, inclusive and relevant activities and events. Poz&Proud provides a replicable model by which other sexual minority and vulnerable communities can more effectively contribute to the public health goals of HIV prevention and care over current community mobilisation approaches more frequently reported on in the literature.
Keywords: access to sexual health and rights, behaviour and social change, digital culture, gay community empowerment, HIV prevention, stigma and discrimination, structural interventions.