Our Stories: Ending HIV Stigma

About Our Stories: Ending HIV Stigma

Our Stories: Ending HIV Stigma is a podcast about women, by women living with HIV in Australia to challenge the myths and stereotypes that feed HIV stigma. We share our stories of achieving our goals, navigating sex and relationships, and our journey through pregnancy and motherhood in this new era of Undetectable equals Untransmittable (U=U). Our stories are real, unfiltered and always inspiring. Hosted by Heather Ellis, a journalist and author, who has lived with HIV since 1995. Contact us at: info@positivewomen.org.au Website: www.positivewomen.org.au/tell-the-story/podcast This podcast has been supported by an unrestricted grant from Gilead Sciences Pty Ltd and made possible by Positive Women Victoria. Listen for free from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or wherever you download your podcasts.

Publisher

Positive Women Victoria

Category

health & fitness · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

21 Sept 2020

Latest episode

15 Aug 2024

Latest episodes

9 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   15 Aug 2024

   Chrissie’s Story: My experience at AIDS2024 as an HIV advocate

   Chrissie has been living with HIV for 24 years. Originally from Zimbabwe, Chrissie lives in Australia’s Northern Territory with her family where she works as a social worker. But Chrissie is also a leading HIV advocate and social media influencer, and was awarded a scholarship to attend AIDS2024, the world’s largest HIV conference held every two years globally. In July, AIDS2024 was held in Munich, Germany. Check out Chrissie's Facebook page Tackle HIV Stigma With Chrissie where she advocates to end HIV-related stigma in African communities in Australia and around the world.

2. 

   26 Nov 2020

   Mati’s Story: Near the end, HIV treatments gave Mati life, love, nine grandchildren and a new career

   Mati, from Zimbabwe, a mother of three, a church leader, and with a career in finance, had a HIV test for a life insurance policy. She was 39 years old and it was 1994, before effective HIV medications were discovered and her diagnosis spelled the end. Or so she thought…. Today, Mati is a social worker, has a new career as a HIV peer treatments facilitator, and has found love again.

3. 

   10 Nov 2020

   Jane’s Story: It was the Age of Aquarius, long before HIV and the era of AIDS.

   Jane has been living with HIV for 31 years and is one of Australia’s HIV elders. Her story begins in the United States during the sexual revolution of the sixties. It was the Age of Aquarius. Long before HIV and the era of AIDS. A time of carefree sexual adventure, of making love not war.

4. 

   28 Oct 2020

   Georgina’s Story: HIV never stopped her volunteering as a sewing teacher in Africa

   Georgina Whitchurch has been living with HIV for seven years. Her story begins in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), in southern Africa.After a career in hospital management in Australia, Georgina followed her passion for sewing and joined the Australian Volunteers Program. As a 64-year-old retiree, she took on the role of teaching sustainable sewing skills to women at an Eswatini village, but the charms of a local man, soon changed her life forever. Effective HIV treatments gave her back her health, and Georgina did not end her commitment to volunteering. She soon returned to Africa as a volunteer independently and for two years continued teaching sewing skills to rural women. After returning to Australia, Georgina put her management skills to good use and recently took on the role of chair of Positive Women Victoria.Podcast – Our Stories: Ending HIV StigmaEpisode 5: Georgina Whitchurch StoryTranscript (begins below AVP response)For people living with HIV who are interested in volunteering with the Australian Volunteers Program, the following response was received on 4/09/2020People diagnosed with HIV are able to volunteer on the Australian Volunteers Program, provided that they are medically cleared, and deemed fit for a particular assignment in a particular country.Our current medical clearances and thresholds are issued by International SOS, our specialist medical screening and emergency assistance service provider. International SOS have been working with the Australian Volunteers Program since 2017, and prior to that date other providers were used.International SOS assesses individual medical situations in the same way, irrespective of what conditions or illnesses a prospective volunteer has. The medical decision by International SOS to approve a volunteer to go on assignment takes into consideration:- Is the person fit to work and deploy overseas?- Will any conditions be exacerbated by an overseas assignment?- Can any required medications be obtained overseas?The Australian Volunteers Program has a firm commitment to equality. This commitment is balanced with our obligation to ensure that program participants (volunteers, and their supported partners and family members) are safe and healthy, and that we do not put them in situations where they cannot be provided with the required medical facilities and support. These determinations are made on the basis of medical assessment by medical practitioners.If a volunteer’s health situation changed while they were on assignment, the same considerations would apply, and these would be based on the advice of a medical practitioner. Whether the volunteer is still fit to remain in-country, and whether we would we be putting them at unacceptable level of risk by keeping them on the program, would be considered.I hope this provides clarification and is helpful for your listeners.Patrick Gallus PublicistT +61 3 9279 1733Australian Volunteers Program - Melbourne office160 Johnston St, (P.O. Box 350), Fitzroy, Victoria, 3065, Australiawww.australianvolunteers.comEpisode 5: Georgina Whitchurch StoryTranscript Heather EllisHi, I'm Heather Ellis, your host on Our Stories Ending HIV Stigma, a podcast by women living with HIV, where we share our stories of our adverse lives and challenge the myths and stereotypes that feed HIV stigma. Our Stories is part of the Women and HIV Tell The Story project made possible by Gilead Sciences and produced by Positive Women Victoria in AustraliaGeorgina Whitchurch has been living with HIV for seven years. Her story begins in Eswatini, formerly Swaziland in southern Africa. After a career in hospital management, Georgina followed her passion for sewing and joined the Australian Volunteers Program. As a 64 year old retiree. She took on the role of teaching sewing to women at a village, but the charms of a local man soon changed her life forever. While effective HIV treatments gave her back her health, she did not end her commitment to volunteering.

5. 

   13 Oct 2020

   Sarah Feagan’s Story: After a bohemian life of self-discovery, HIV stigma nearly killed her

   Sarah Feagan has been living with HIV for 12 years. Her story begins in Melbourne. As a troubled teen, Sarah left home and her youth became a rollercoaster of homelessness, and drugs, which evolved into a bohemian life of self-discovery. After falling in love with a partner who didn’t know their status, later Sarah was diagnosed with HIV at 21, but while effective treatments were available, this was not enough and stigma nearly killed her. Today, Sarah is an HIV peer navigator and one of Australia’s most dynamic leaders in HIV advocacy, especially for women.TRANSCRIPTEPISODE 4: SARAH FEAGAN’S STORYUploaded: 13/10/2020Heather EllisHi, I'm Heather Ellis your host on our stories, ending HIV stigma, a podcast by women living with HIV, where we share our stories of our diverse lives and challenged the myths and stereotypes that feed HIV stigma are stories as part of the women and HIV tell the story project made possible by Gilead Sciences and produced by Positive Women Victoria in Australia. Sarah Feagan has been living with HIV for 12 years. Her story begins in Melbourne. As a troubled tee, Sarah left home at 14 and her youth became a roller coaster of homelessness, and drugs, which evolved into a bohemian life of self-discovery. After falling in love with a partner who didn't know their status. Later, Sarah was diagnosed with HIV. But while effective treatments were available. This was not enough and stigma nearly killed her. Today. Sarah is a Peer Navigator and one of Australia's most dynamic leaders in HIV efficacy, especially for women. Welcome, Sarah.Sarah FeaganThank you so much. Hello. Thanks for having me. And thanks for a beautiful introduction.Heather EllisYou're such an inspiration. I want to start by asking as a teenager you were living on and off the streets of Melbourne. And this is often a lifestyle that is termed the University of Life. What were some of your learning experiences that made you the person you are today?Sarah FeaganYeah, I think being on the streets, you know, and that comes in different forms as well. Sometimes you sleeping rough sometimes, you're couch-surfing. But you really feel like you're at the whim of other people. And I think though that can be a really good thing and really bad thing because it can teach you about how the kindness of strangers or the gentleness of other people but it can also teach you the realities of, I guess, how cruel and how bad people can be as well and I was really lucky that during my time, when I was homeless that I had really good people that did help me and I have to say that there would have been more positive experiences, than negative ones.Heather EllisYou were telling me your parents stood by you during those years? S what would be your advice to other parents who might have teenagers going through a similar situation?Sarah FeaganMy parents, a shout out to those beautiful humans, I put them through and back and, you know, at 14, you don't know, I thought I knew everything. And I thought that I could understand certain things in my life that had happened or certain moments that had made me act out in different ways. And I was so confused and so angry and I was going through puberty and it's just a toxic mix? But I couldn't verbalize. I couldn't say what was happening for me. So it came out in really poor behaviors. And, yeah, my parents went through that and they had to watch sort of me self-destruct, when they were willing and able to support me. So we are, we are really close now. Like we speak every day, and we're really good friends. But I think to other parents, I'm not a parent myself, so I can't, I can't sort of speak to that. But definitely their unconditional love. The door was always open, even when they wanted to lock it and change the keys change and change the locks, they still kept that door open. And I think that I had to go on my journey of self-discovery and my journey of self-awakening and understanding a lot of things about my

6. 

   28 Sept 2020

   Batsirai’s Story: In Africa, safe messages were everywhere, but not in Australia

   Batsirai’s story begins in southern Africa. As a teenager in the late 1990’s, she recalls a scary time when people were dying from AIDS. Safe messages were everywhere. Then the family moved to Australia, but there were no billboards, no TV adverts, no news of HIV and she assumed it was safe here. Batsirai’s revealing story highlights the importance of continuing to have public discussions of HIV among all our communities to encourage awareness, testing, and as a challenge to the myths that underpin stigma.https://positivewomen.org.au/tell-the-story/podcastTRANSCRIPT / SHOW NOTESBATSIRAI StoryHeather EllisHi, I'm Heather Ellis your host on our stories ending HIV stigma, a podcast for women living with HIV, where we share our stories of our diverse lives and challenge the myths and stereotypes that feed HIV stigma. Our Stories is part of the women in HIV Tell The Story project made possible by Gilead Sciences and produced by Positive Women Victoria in Australia.Batsirai has been living with HIV for 13 years. Her story begins in southern Africa as a teenager in the late 1990s. Batsirai recalls a scary time growing up in Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. People were getting sick and dying from AIDS, safe messages were everywhere. So when she finished high school and went to university, everyone either use condoms or abstain from . Then her parents moved the family to Australia, but there were no billboards. No TV adverts, no news of HIV, and she assumed it was safe here. Welcome Batsirai.Batsirai Hi, everyone.Heather EllisIt sounds like you had a very exciting life traveling around those countries in southern Africa. Why were your family living in so many countries?Batsirai Well, I think part of it is because my parents, they are both Africans, but they come from two different countries. So in Africa, there are so many countries in different cultures, different languages. So I think my parents wanted me to embrace both cultures. So they were African but Africans but very different. I was born in Zimbabwe, but I was raised in Namibia, which is another country, so to be part of different cultures in that family. We just used to move around on school holidays. So that was quite important part of who I am. I've acquired three different languages, and it's always stuck with me. So yeah, it was pretty amazing time when I think back.Heather EllisWhat was it like as a teenager in Africa at this time when there were so many messages about HIV on the billboards, in the news. What did you and your friends talk about around HIV? How scary was it? What was it like?BatsiraiIt was very scary because even in educations classes in high school, they always told us about HIV. It was being discussed. And we're told, because I went to a Catholic school in high school. So obviously the Catholic schools and churches they already have their own values around . So they're even reinforcing the abstinence because of HIV. And then they call it as it is and the musicians back in Africa they were singing about HIV. They spoke about AIDS because people were dying. So there were messages in songs, messages at school, messages everywhere. Even with your parents because we had aunts and uncles who were dying. I think I had like three close relatives for my mom and dad who died because of AIDS-related illness. So it was very close to home. It was just very real. Yeah, no, no one wanted to get it. So in high school people were afraid we never engage in at all. Yeah, we were scared.Heather EllisIt's so different than what it is here in Australia where you would be very hard pressed to find anyone who has been impacted by HIV by having a family member die from from AIDS. And back then HIV was very much a death sentence. It was before effective HIV medications were discovered, which was in 1996. So you had this health education at school. How did your parents talk to you about education as a teenager?Batsirai Well, my parents Well, they also reinforce the

7. 

   25 Sept 2020

   Brittney’s Story: After a surgery mishap in childhood, HIV never held her back.

   After a surgery mishap, Brittney contracted HIV when she was nine years old. Brittney, not her real name, has been living with HIV for 21 years. Growing up with HIV navigating friendships, relationships, university and now a new mum, HIV has never held her back.For more details on topics discussed in this episode, please visit:Positive Women Victoria: https://positivewomen.org.auEpisode 2: Brittney’s StoryTranscript / Show Notes Heather Ellis:Hi, I'm Heather Ellis your host on Our Stories: Ending HIV Stigma, a podcast by women living with HIV where we share our stories of our diverse lives and challenge the myths and stereotypes that feed HIV stigma. Our stories is part of the women in HIV tell the story project made possible by Gilead Sciences and produced by Positive Women Victoria in Australia.Brittany's story starts in Melbourne, Brittany, not her real name, has been living with HIV for 21 years. At just nine years old, she contracted HIV due to a mishap from major surgery as a child. As a teenager, then a young woman navigating relationships, university and a career, and now a new mum, HIV has never held her back. Welcome, Brittany. And thank you for sharing your story on Our Stories: Ending HIV Stigma.Brittney:No worries. It's my pleasure.Heather Ellis:You were telling me that your parents told you when you were 10 years old. I imagine you knew very little of HIV other than the occasional news report on TV. What were those early years like for you as a child?Brittney:Oh, it's funny. You mentioned the occasional news report, because coincidentally, just a couple of weeks or so before I was diagnosed, I actually read an article in the weekend paper profiling some people that had recently been diagnosed and the headline was: I will survive. And so that was pretty much my understanding, I knew that it was a virus, and I knew that it was a big deal to some people, but I was also being told, this is not a big deal. This is not a death sentence. Everything should be normal for you when you grow up. So it was kind of reconciling those two differing opinions and those mixed messages that I was getting was probably the major thing that was going on for me at that time.Heather Ellis:So how did your parents tell you? Did they sit you down and say, “Oh, we have something to tell you?” How did that go? What was your memory of that?Brittney: It was all a little bit dramatic in terms of the circumstances in which we found out and we got a phone call from the hospital. And, and so from there, it was basically just straight into the car to the hospital to have the test. And so the bits of information that I got from them were sort of small pieces. And eventually, I think we were told, not negative at some point, but we weren't told positive for a little while either. So there was a little bit of a limbo period in there as well. And so I can't really remember the conversations I had with them, but I was kind of learning as they were. We were all sort of getting that information at the same time.Heather Ellis:That news would have been so shocking for your parents for their child to be diagnosed with HIV. But like you're saying, you were all on this learning curve, and I imagine it brought you so close together. During your childhood, did you find that you had this was a really stronger relationship with your parents and having their support?Brittney:Yeah, and that continued through life, because I've been able to say, the amount of time and energy and love that has gone into that part of my experience. I mean, it's gone into all of my experiences with my parents, but that, in particular, I was able to see their need to protect me and to sort of witness the things that they were doing and saying. I did have a little bit of an issue in the earlier days with the fact that we weren't talking about it as much as I thought we should be. I think it's difficult as a child and an adolescent to find the right outlet for those kinds of con

8. 

   21 Sept 2020

   Charlotte’s Story: A Bali travel adventure changed her life

   Charlotte’s story begins in Bali, Indonesia. Like most young Australians, she yearned to travel and volunteering at an orphanage in Bali when she was 18 years old was a natural step after working at a childcare centre in Melbourne. But orphanage tourism didn’t sit well with her and she moved to Bali’s Kuta Beach and its nightclub scene. Things soon spiralled out of control. But after falling pregnant, she overcame her drug addiction and returned to Australia, where she was diagnosed with HIV. Charlotte now has three beautiful children all born free of HIV.For more details on topics discussed in this episode, please visit:Positive Women Victoria: https://positivewomen.org.auEpisode 1: Charlotte’s StoryTranscript / Show NotesHeather EllisHi, I'm Heather Ellis your host on our stories ending HIV stigma, a podcast by women living with HIV, where we share our stories of our diverse lives and challenge the myths and stereotypes that feed HIV stigma are stories as part of the women and HIV tell the story project made possible by Gilead Sciences and produced by positive women Victoria in Australia.Charlotte's story begins in Bali, like most young Australians, she yearned to travel and volunteering at an orphanage was a natural step after working at a childcare center in Melbourne. At 18 years of age, Charlotte had already achieved so much in her young life, and often against the odds. She raced BMX bikes from the age of three was a ballroom dancing champion and crewed on a racing yacht, a sport that took her to those wild oceans of Britain. But all this was just a small part of Charlotte's young life. Now in her 30s, Charlotte has been living with HIV for 10 years. Welcome, Charlotte.CharlotteI was always a go getter. I was always looking for something more. And I was always looking for a bigger rush, a bigger thrill in life. And I had such a passion for childcare and working with children and I just thought, what more could I do than volunteer in an orphanage where I can volunteer my time and my skills of loving children. So, off I went. First off I did a fundraiser by baking slices. And after a couple weeks, I'd had enough money from fundraising I went and I donated the money that I had made to the orphanage. It came about spontaneous and one day I just googled Bali orphanages, and I emailed a handful of them. I got a reply from one and they said, Okay, see you next week.Heather EllisWere you the only volunteer there?CharlotteYeah, it was really bizarre. When I arrived at the airport at about midnight. I didn't speak any Indonesian. And I had only ever been there once when I was maybe six months before on a week holiday with a girlfriend. And I arrived at the airport and there was a strange man standing there with a sign with my name on it. And I thought, well, this must be my ride. So I went over and introduced myself and I got in this strange man's car and off we drove to the middle of a jungle in the middle of the night. It was pitch black and he literally dropped me at the door and said, goodbye. So I walked in and there was nobody there to greet me. Everyone was asleep. So I just wandered around the compound and I was very confused as to what I was meant to do. So I found a bedroom and I just parked up there for the night. And I remember calling my mom and I was like, there's giant geckos on the wall. There's a Huntsman spider in my toilet, and no one was there. And then at 5am, this huge alarm and siren went off, and I could hear all these little children. It was an all girl’s orphanage. And I could hear all these little girls all running and cheering and going into a hall, and still no one came to meet me or introduce me yet. So I followed the noises and I walked into this hall and all these little girls turned and stared at me.Heather EllisAnd so when you got there, what were the children like? What was the reaction to this stranger coming into their life?CharlotteI just waved and said, Hi, I'm here to help. And

9. 

   21 Sept 2020

   Introducing Our Stories Ending HIV Stigma

   A podcast about women, by women living with HIV in Australia to challenge the myths and stereotypes that feed HIV stigma.We share our stories of achieving our goals, navigating and relationships, and our journey through pregnancy and motherhood in this new era of Undetectable equals Untransmittable (U=U). Our stories are real, unfiltered and always inspiring.Hosted by Heather Ellis, a journalist and author, who has lived with HIV since 1995.This podcast has been supported by an unrestricted grant from Gilead Sciences Pty Ltd and made possible by Positive Women Victoria.CREDITS:Host: Heather EllisProducer: Positive Women VictoriaFind more episodes of Our Stories and show notes:https://positivewomen.org.au/tell-the-story/podcastFor information and support on living with HIV: https://positivewomen.org.auIf you enjoyed Our Stories and want to tell us about it? Phone us on: 03 9863 8747 or email us at info@positivewomen.org.au

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