A resource developed by the AFAO/NAPWA Education Team. The resource, which was launched by NAPWA President David Menadue at the NAPWA Conference on 28 October, 2003, takes an innovative peer approach to describing the experience of living with HIV/AIDS. The resource is based on the personal stories of people living with HIV/AIDS. Themes covered include treatments, sexuality, disclosure, work, money, pregnancy and fathering children, and more.
You can read the full text of the resource on this website — follow the links below — or you can contact us if you’d like to receive a free hard copy.
Based on interviews with sixteen HIV-positive people in Lismore, Melbourne and Sydney. No real names have been used in this publication.
ISBN 1 876469 24 2 (printed resource)
Copyright© AFAO/NAPWA 2003
Foreword
Having a Life takes an innovative peer approach to describing the experience of living with HIV/AIDS in the era of HAART. The inclusion of powerful and moving stories from positive people about the way they survive – and sometimes thrive – with HIV in their daily lives gives this resource a real value for HIV positive readers and their friends and families.
The book will be of particular value for those people who have been newly diagnosed with HIV and who wonder about what the experience of taking treatments will be like, how others will react to their diagnosis, how best to tell their family, friends, workmates or sexual partners. There are not always definite ways to approach all the aspects of living with HIV and each person will need to discover the best way forward for them in their own way and time. This resource gives some helpful insights into how to go about it, pointing out potential obstacles and ways around them.
This is also illuminating reading for those of us who have already lived with HIV for some time. I found it inspiring the way the way some positive people have assimilated HIV into their lives and how they have used their new-found health from improved treatments to find new directions in life. I recommend it to all my positive peers and their friends.
David Menadue
President
National Association of People living With HIV/AIDS (NAPWA)