Hello fellow bloggers,
It’s been a busy week! Can’t wait till Friday :)
I want to say that this week’s QOTW got me thinking real hard on how I will react if I was needed to help a bleeding HIV patient. I must say it was tough to actually imagine being in that situation. However, I know that I will not hesitate giving someone a helping hand just because I am afraid of contracting a disease. After I posted my answer, I thought about asking someone close to me this question, and put them in the same situation. So, I asked my sister what she will do, and I was shocked to hear her response. This is exactly what she said: “Noor, no one can care for another more than caring for themselves. I will not touch the 23-years old lady, I will drive home and call for help, but I will not actually risk my own safety”!!!!
It was horrible to hear that, and I tried so hard to argue with her about it, but it wasn’t working… When I gave it more thought, I realized that my sister is not the only one who’s “Terrified” of being near someone with HIV. There are a lot of people out there who know so little and fear so much. And it’s worse because we can’t stop them from thinking that, we can only watch HIV patients being discriminated against, even when they need help, people will still not help them. Ahhhhhhhhhh!
Anyway, I am starting to get worried about assignment 4 because I have two more movies to watch and I feel like I’m running out of time. Last Friday, I dragged my friend with me to the library and we watched the Silver Lake Life movie. Oh man, she cried her eyes out when one of the guys died; you could hear her crying, IN THE LIBRARY!!! I felt so bad for the guy and seeing his lover taping him while he was being carried away, wow, it bring tears to my eyes as I’m typing. Life is so unfair!
DID YOU KNOW???
Just like every week, I was doing some research about stigma and HIV/AIDS when I found out information about how stigma affects women with HIV. According to the South African Medical Research Council, in Africa, women are looked at differently and they’re usually disadvantaged culturally and economically. They are not excused for their behavior that resulted in their infection while men are excused. Also, women are still thought to be the reason for all the sexually transmitted disease, and don’t receive the proper medical help HIV positive males recieve. A scary but realistic fact.
Reference: Visser, P. (2007). HIV/AIDS Stigma, South Africa Medical Research Council. retrieved October 07, 2009, from http://www.mrc.ac.za/public/facts17.htm
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5 comments:
I have to at least commend your sister for her honesty. I think that there are plenty of people who probably share her opinion. It is a scary thing risking ourselves, whether the risk be physiological or the risk that we be the subject of scrutiny or stigma. The real fear should be that fear holds us back. I think you pointed out a really good fact that in many places and probably even here in the States, women are blamed for STDs regardless although it is statistically more likely for a woman to contract HIV from a male partner. Don't feel bad about crying, it was an emotional experience these movies we had to watch!
Well, I too cried. In this movie, and in Common Threads. It is easy sometimes to go through life not thinking about people who really have no life due to HIV/AIDS. This is powerful. I think that at least your sister is as honest as one can get. I think that everyone is entitled to do as they think best, but can they live with their concious?
I think that your sister's response would have been my response as well before I took this class. I have really opened up a lot on HIV in the last month and a half. The movie was really sad and I cried too towards the end. It was so sad to see Mark dying in the whole movie with him being sick all the time and never having enough energy to do much.
It saddens me to know that women with HIV in Africa would be treated differently. I know women are seen are inferior, but it is sad how this also carries over to healthcare. I wonder what could be done to change this??
Even if your sister didn't want to touch the girl, she could have looked around for a phone to use to call for help. Or she could have looked to see if any of the cars had On Star and pushed the button for help. Driving away means certain death for that girl.
I witnessed an accident and got out of my car to help the person. They were bleeding and I had to hold the head just in case there was an injury there. I wasn't worried about HIV or any other disease that this person could have. I was worried that they wouldn't survive to see their family again.
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