KOKODA+ Trek
Don protégé
Hi there!
My name is Penny, a sexual health Nurse Practitioner from Townsville, and a mother of 2 boys. This coming June, I will be walking the KOKODA trail in Papua New Guinea to raise awareness of an issue that is close to my heart: the stigma that affects people living with HIV (PLHIV).
More often than not, the discrimination they experience is more harmful than the infection itself.
As a clinician with 35 years of nursing experience, I have seen my share of stigma and discrimination directed against PLHIV by both lay people and sadly also from fellow clinicians. And worst of all is that a lot of it seeds from false and outdated misconceptions around the condition.
It breaks my heart to see men and women being isolated in single rooms, being denied basic treatment, having to wear infection control wrist bands or even just being refused a simple massage because they are HIV positive – and the list goes on!
This needs to stop now; HIV-related stigma and discrimination is building a barrier to effective prevention, treatment, care and support programs in Australia and globally. It is crucial that patients and medical professionals be able to address the virus in a safe and open space that encourages conversation, not hate.
Treatment today has changed the face of HIV for good. It is now a manageable condition that can be treated with as little as 1 pill a day. Treatment as prevention (TasP) allows PLHIV to live healthy, happy and long lives.
This is where I need your help and support. By donating to this project, you will help:
· Show the world that being HIV positive is not a hindrance to doing physical & psychologically challenging events; HIV doesn’t dictate how positive people live their lives.
· HIV treatment programs run by the Australasian Society of HIV Medicine (ASHM) and their collaborative partners in PNG to develop and implement HIV treatment programs.
· Support PLHIV in Papua New Guinea who – in a developing country - face more challenges in accessing basic life-sustaining needs and medication, sanitation, roads or health centres. PNG desperately needs financial support to provide care and aid to positive people and their families.
· Women and children who are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS in PNG.
It is a sad indictment of our society and the health system that HIV-positive people feel discrimination and stigma on a daily basis– and it must stop.
My fund-raising goal as you can see is $6k and I cannot do it without your support.
Thank you all for taking the time to read this, and for supporting my goal to walk the Kokoda trail.
My name is Penny, a sexual health Nurse Practitioner from Townsville, and a mother of 2 boys. This coming June, I will be walking the KOKODA trail in Papua New Guinea to raise awareness of an issue that is close to my heart: the stigma that affects people living with HIV (PLHIV).
More often than not, the discrimination they experience is more harmful than the infection itself.
As a clinician with 35 years of nursing experience, I have seen my share of stigma and discrimination directed against PLHIV by both lay people and sadly also from fellow clinicians. And worst of all is that a lot of it seeds from false and outdated misconceptions around the condition.
It breaks my heart to see men and women being isolated in single rooms, being denied basic treatment, having to wear infection control wrist bands or even just being refused a simple massage because they are HIV positive – and the list goes on!
This needs to stop now; HIV-related stigma and discrimination is building a barrier to effective prevention, treatment, care and support programs in Australia and globally. It is crucial that patients and medical professionals be able to address the virus in a safe and open space that encourages conversation, not hate.
Treatment today has changed the face of HIV for good. It is now a manageable condition that can be treated with as little as 1 pill a day. Treatment as prevention (TasP) allows PLHIV to live healthy, happy and long lives.
This is where I need your help and support. By donating to this project, you will help:
· Show the world that being HIV positive is not a hindrance to doing physical & psychologically challenging events; HIV doesn’t dictate how positive people live their lives.
· HIV treatment programs run by the Australasian Society of HIV Medicine (ASHM) and their collaborative partners in PNG to develop and implement HIV treatment programs.
· Support PLHIV in Papua New Guinea who – in a developing country - face more challenges in accessing basic life-sustaining needs and medication, sanitation, roads or health centres. PNG desperately needs financial support to provide care and aid to positive people and their families.
· Women and children who are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS in PNG.
It is a sad indictment of our society and the health system that HIV-positive people feel discrimination and stigma on a daily basis– and it must stop.
My fund-raising goal as you can see is $6k and I cannot do it without your support.
Thank you all for taking the time to read this, and for supporting my goal to walk the Kokoda trail.
Organisateur
Penny Kenchington
Organisateur
Newstead QLD
