“Just Look Into The Eyes” Promotes HIV/AIDS Awareness in Crimea
Understanding that it is impossible to fight AIDS unless people first learn to understand and support those who live with HIV/AIDS, a group of activists organized an unusual photo exhibition in Symferopol, Crimea, for World AIDS Day. The December 1 event, organized by the All Ukrainian Network of People Living With AIDS (PLWHA) and the U.S.-based non-governmental organization, International Relief and Development, Inc (IRD), carried the name “Look Into The Eyes.”
“Look Into The Eyes” tried to express the viewpoints, the opinions and the attitudes of different people towards the HIV/AIDS problem, explained Natalya Yegorova, Director of the Crimean branch of the All Ukrainian Network of PLWHA and one of those whose portrait was displayed in the photo exhibition.
“Don’t try to find any connections between the photos and the stories or draw an analogy, it doesn’t exist. Just look into eyes. Does AIDS differentiate? Who are we? What are we? What do we feel living with HIV/AIDS? What do we know about HIV-infection and feelings of people who live with HIV/AIDS?” queried Ms. Yegorova.
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| Photo exhibition challenges attitudes toward those living with HIV/AIDS |
The organizers hoped that viewers might find the answers in stories, articles and quotations displayed in the exhibition which featured 50 photos and over 40 different viewpoints by different people, ranging from those who have never met HIV-positive people, and those who do not know the status of their friends, relatives or neighbors, to those who know much about the disease from first hand experience.
Besides photo portraits and quotations by residents of Crimea, the exhibition also included stories and quotations by people from all over the world who are not indifferent to the fates of those living with HIV/AIDS.
“We often set lofty global goals, fight against something or try to change the world, but we forget that everything starts with changing yourself and that only love and understanding can change the world,” Ms. Yegorova said.
The exhibition showed a variety of opinions and attitudes of various politicians, governmental officials, renowned individuals and business leaders towards the AIDS epidemic and PLWHA.
“While financing remains essential, I think that we should start by changing people’s attitudes, and by giving more information about HIV prevention, ways of transmission and protection,” explained Crimea’s Minister of Health Sergey Donich.
The Symferopol photo exhibition proved so popular – more than 2,000 people visited the exhibition on December 1, 2005 – and generated such demand that additional displays have been organized for Yalta, Feodosiya, Belogorsk, Donetsk, Mariupol, Slavyansk and Dimitrovo.
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