In recent years, quite a lot of effort has been put into making sure that terms used to refer to certain groups of people – particularly those who are part of marginalised or stigmatised minorities – are not offensive. This is obviously to be applauded. Language matters and hearing yourself referred to with a derogatory term is hurtful and undermines self-worth. Equally when people grow up hearing certain groups referred to with derogatory terms, this is more likely to create a feeling that these groups are in fact inferior in some sense and that it is okay to insult them. This can do a lot of long-term harm. However, the thinking seems to be that if we just change the term used, that will lead to improvement and this is short-sighted.
Continue reading “Language Matters, But Is Not All”Tag: #stigma
Breaking Stigma Through Exposure
Stigma is an important roadblock in the way of moving children from institutions to families. As well as to ensure that children are not separated from their families unnecessarily in the first place. There are a lot of children who are affected by stigma, including but not limited to children with disabilities, children affected by HIV, children of unwed mothers, children belonging to marginalised minorities, children on the move, children living in the street, former child soldiers, survivors of child trafficking, survivors of sexual abuse, and children who have lived in ‘orphanages’. In discussions around moving children who are stigmatised in some way from institutions to families, there is often a perception that this cannot be done, it is just not safe for the children to be moved into a community that does not accept them.
Continue reading “Breaking Stigma Through Exposure”HIV Awareness-Raising
Today is World AIDS Day. While the situation for people who are infected with HIV has changed a lot since World AIDS Day was first announced, in some ways things seem to have changed hardly at all. When I work with institutions that house children with HIV to transition to family-based care, the biggest obstacle that we run into is not the children’s health issues or medical needs, it is still stigma and discrimination.
Continue reading “HIV Awareness-Raising”Medical Prejudice on HIV
The stigma attached to HIV/AIDS is still strong in most parts of the world, and this can have a greater debilitation effect on people who are HIV positive than their medical condition does. In a general way, I already touched on this in the blog that I wrote for World AIDS Day last December (you can find it HERE). Today I want to shine a spotlight on the way people with HIV are still discriminated against even by medical doctors, who really should know better.
Continue reading “Medical Prejudice on HIV”World AIDS Day
When the first World AIDS Day took place, in 1988, having HIV meant getting AIDS and dying of it, quite rapidly. It was essential to raise awareness, both to try to prevent the spread of the disease and to push the medical community into coming up with effective treatments. Today, with the rapid improvement of medication to control the HIV that leads to AIDS, and with the number of AIDS deaths on the decline in many parts of the world it may seem to some people that it is no longer very necessary to shine such a light on the issue. People who have access to Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) can live normal lives, aside from taking medication and medical check ups, of normal length. But that is not all there is to it.
Continue reading “World AIDS Day”International Albinism Awareness Day
Albinism – being ‘an albino’ – is a condition where a person’s body does not produce any pigmentation. This leads to white hair, a very pale (or pink, because you can see the blood vessels through it) skin and eyes that are blue, but in such a pale way that the redness of the back of the eye shines through it.
Pigmentation is important to protect the skin and the eyes from UV radiation. Without this protection a person is far more likely to develop skin cancer. The eyes have very low tolerance for bright light and may have other problems with vision. This in itself deserves awareness raising. However, unfortunately there are greater problems attached to Albinism in certain parts of the world.
Continue reading “International Albinism Awareness Day”World TB Day
Yesterday was World TB Day. Tuberculosis is a healthcare issue, of course, but it is also one relevant with regards to institutional care. First of all, as long as TB still goes around, it spreads like wildfire in places where children live close together, for example in so-called orphanages.
Continue reading “World TB Day”