NGO: HIV/AIDS Technical Working Group

After learning about the prevalence of HIV and AIDS in Viet Nam from our orientation week "lessons," I decided to click on the link that directed me to this NGO called HIV/AIDS Technical Working Group (TWG), as part of the UN Programme on HIV and AIDS. The websites that were linked had very little information: a brief message about the mission and the overall structure of the meetings, a list of contacts, and agendas/minutes from previous meetings. In short, many entities come together once every two months to "share resources and experience, engage in planning, and form partnerships for HIV/AIDS prevention, care and advocacy" in Viet Nam.

I am particularly interested in this NGO not so much for the organization itself, but more so for the issues it is working on. From what I have gathered already, the topics of sexuality and disease are taboo subjects that are not for open and public discussion. One's sexual practices are not meant to be disclosed due to face-saving for both the individual and the family, and the stigmas of getting a deadly disease due to ("irregular") sexual practices are so great that the rates of contracting HIV/AIDS cannot be accurately determined and analyzed. Thus the problem becomes a vicious cycle: one must not talk about one's sexuality and/or sexual behaviors --> related health information, care, and statistics become inaccurate and invisible --> one is not conscious of the risks of certain sexual practices --> one cannot seek help when something goes wrong --> the contracted STD spreads --> and back to the beginning.

The issue of HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and advocacy in Viet Nam is more multilayered, though. For example, in many non-western societies, certain non-heterosexual identities and practices are considered western constructs and thus are not applicable to non-western cultures. This certainly has many truths. The term "gay" is now capitalized as a western label used all too generally for anyone (especially males) who does not conduct in heteronormative behaviors. In addition, the prototypical image that comes to mind when the word "gay" is mentioned is a white man who has considerable consumer power for material goods and services such as self-beautification (working out at the gym, using skin-care products, shaving) and flamboyancy (dressy, showy, "fabulous"). In mainstream media, this is also the typical image presented to the audience for a "gay" character, which further westernizes and glamorizes gayness. In many non-western civilizations such as Viet Nam in which western-style individualism, capitalism, and consumerism are not the traditional core of society, this presentation of a particular sexuality thus does not fit into the image of a typical person. Without being exposed to non-heterosexual individuals of their own cultural and value system (to no fault of their own of course), people in non-western societies therefore cannot accept this "western disease" as inevitably part of their own lives. The rate of HIV/AIDS infection is universally higher among people of non-heterosexual identities (the causes of this phenomenon are beyond the scope of this entry, but some factors that should be considered include stigma of practices, underground and invisible nature of non-heterosexualness due to societal rejection and in many cases persecution, lack of institutional care due to governmental policies (e.g. the Reagan years), etc), hence further complicating the issue of providing culturally-appropriate services and prevention measures in countries such as Viet Nam.

The topics of sexuality and STDs have been on the back-burner for many countries due to institutional subjugation of such subjects, and the result is the massive number of victims who only became victims due to lack of relevant information and knowledge toward the issues. The growing rate of HIV/AIDS infection is occurring in a critical time period during which institutional energies are heavily directed toward raising the GDP rather than providing much-needed resources for marginalized and invisible communities. This is a matter of humanity and dignity as much as a matter of politics and economy. The first step (as well as the most challenging one, I think) is to raise the visibility of this issue in a culturally-sensitive way.

What I would like to know more about this NGO include:

- the specific programs designed to address the issue of growing HIV/AIDS infection rates: their targets, plan-of-action, goals, printed materials, scope of outreach, etc
- how it addresses the issue of non-heterosexualness in the Vietnamese context and how it makes non-heterosexualness relevant to Vietnamese society
- whether/how it is influencing governmental policies toward HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and advocacy through the state educational and medical system