VPWAS Positive+ Journal

It takes a Village to Raise a Fag

2012-02-06T10:12:00.000-08:00

So much happens between the split second of a much-hated question and the stilted response. I look into his eyes to see if he has caught me over-thinking my comeback. “I get tested every 3 to 6 months for STI’s.” Cool, he says. Before the moment’s lost and because I don’t want to be sent to jail, I say, “And in the spirit of transparency, you need to know I’m undetectable.” Then he affably responds by saying, “Oh, so that means you’re clean/clean.”

Robert Birch, the Men`s Wellness Coordinator at AIDS Vancouver Island (avi.org) is featured as a guest writer on PositiveLite.com (positivelite.com) and this week writes about queer community, history and “Is gay even relevant anymore?”

http://positivelite.com/content/news/news-sections/activism/item/it-takes-a-village

Espresso Yourself! Get Positively Connected

2012-01-19T12:08:00.000-08:00

Building a support network is important. Support can be at an agency but may also be less formal such as coffee meetings, pot luck dinners and other ways to meet new people and get involved.

Accessing existing community-based support networks can also bring you connections with other gay and bi men living with HIV. Being connected can help to improve mental, emotional, spiritual and physical health. And you can make great friends!

For more information about Positively Connected vist the Positively Connected Victoria BC facebook page here, or contact Victoria AIDS Resource & Community Services Society (VARCS) at 250.388.6220 or info@varcs.org.

Dear World Without AIDS

2012-01-09T10:17:00.000-08:00

We have come to acknowledge thirty years of HIV/AIDS. A team of volunteers, including artists, homeless folks, peer counsellors, and practicum students, in conjunction with several ASO`s, wove together a year-by-year tapestry of the disease that defines our era.

Robert Birch, the Men`s Wellness Coordinator at AIDS Vancouver Island (avi.org) is featured as a guest writer on PositiveLite.com (positivelite.com) and talks about World AIDS Day in Victoria, BC and of how ceremony and art mingled in one evening of remembrance and hope – and of a time capsule to be opened only when there is a cure.

Read the article here: Dear World Without AIDS

M•A•C AIDS Fund supports VPWAS

2012-01-06T12:09:00.000-08:00

VPWAS would like to thank the M·A·C AIDS Fund for their support of our Positive+ Living Program. The Positive+ Living Program is a health promotion program that offers a variety of activities and events to help increase social interaction for people living with HIV/AIDS and HepC and improving their health and well-being.

The M·A·C AIDS Fund is supported by M·A·C Cosmetics - 100% of the selling price of VIVA GLAM Lipsticks go towards the fight against HIV/AIDS. Thanks to their efforts, the M·A·C AIDS Fund has raised more than $228 million USD over the past 16 years to help men, women and children living with and affected by HIV and AIDS.

Each VIVA GLAM sells for $16.50 CAD and 100% of the selling prices goes to the M·A·C AIDS Fund to support HIV/AIDS programs and services.

To learn more about the M·A·C AIDS Fund please visit: http://www.macaidsfund.org/

Male Call Canada survey

2011-12-13T14:28:00.000-08:00

Male Call Canada survey addresses the health and well-being of MSM across Canada

Male Call Canada is a bilingual toll-free telephone survey of the health-related attitudes, knowledge and behaviours of men who have sex with men (MSM).

Researchers from several Canadian universities and community partners are collaborating in the Male Call Canada study, with the hope of building a healthier community.

Men are asked to call for a free, anonymous and confidential interview about current issues, wherever in Canada they may live.

The information gathered will be used to educate, promote and develop effective programming for the challenges facing MSM, and the fight against HIV and other issues.

Men: if you have ever had sex with another man – call now to contribute your unique perspective to this important study.

Call 1-855-846-MALE (6253)

Monday to Friday 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. (EST)
Saturday & Sunday 12 p.m. (noon) to 8 p.m. (EST)

http://www.malecall.ca/

World AIDS Day Coverage

2011-12-05T17:08:00.000-08:00

SHAW TV's coverage of World AIDS Day, including interviews with AVI's Robert Birch, Andrea Langlois and Calys Kuprowski (Artist)

VICTORIA – A flash mob at Victoria’s Bay Centre to mark World Aids Day shows how attitudes towards the disease had changed since it was first discovered, 30 years ago. Coverage from CTV Vancouver Island.

In Honour of World AIDS Day

2011-11-22T18:19:00.001-08:00

Join us to co-create a living history project to mark 30 years since the discovery of HIV/AIDS. Hosted at Metro Studios, this community art installation will include a visual timeline of the history of HIV/AIDS and a short ceremony where participants will present their additions to a time capsule, which will be sealed, to be opened once a cure for HIV/AIDS has been found.

On December 1, Victoria’s organizations that serve people living with HIV/AIDS host a ceremonial event commemorating the 30th anniversary of the discovery of HIV/AIDS.

For World AIDS Day 2011 many individuals and groups affected by HIV/AIDS will gather together in Victoria to mark this historic day by co-creating a living history project. Participants will be welcomed into an intimate space surrounded, year by year, with facts about of the social evolution of this disease, as well as our responses to it. After reading about the many impactful moments in time that have induced shock, fear and anger around humanity’s unimaginable loss – as well as acknowledging the many hard won victories – participants will be invited to add their personal story to the global HIV/AIDS timeline.

From there several groups representing aboriginal populations, gay men, service organizations, women, Zimbabwe and youth will step forward and place their stories and a small object, meaningful to their experience of HIV/AIDS, into a time capsule. These brief presentations will take the forms of dance, music, story or dramatic monologue, each indicative of the culture each presenter represents. This “story container” will be our collective message to the future.

The time capsule will not to be opened until a cure has been delivered.

The HIV/AIDS timeline and sealed time capsule will then be available as an education tool to provide a visual living history, creating a much needed human context for this next generation of volunteers, activists, researchers, lovers, families and friends.

Refreshments will be served while a reflective visual montage of the history of this global pandemic is shown.

On this 30th anniversary we will come together to share our courageous stories, and our renewed determination to make the world a healthier place for all.

Organicsed in partnership with AVI, VARCS & VPWAS.

WHERE: Metro Theatre 1411 Quadra at Johnson

Time: People are invited to visit the space from 4 pm - 6:45 pm

Ceremony from 7pm to 8pm

For more information contact Robert Birch at AIDS Vancouver Island, Victoria, BC 250-384-2366, extension 2273.

Have your Positive+ voice heard

2011-11-07T08:16:00.000-08:00

Thanks for joining us here at VPWAS Positive+ Journal!

Are you looking to have your Positive+ voice heard?

VPWAS Positive+ Journal is project led by VPWAS (Vancouver Island Persons Living with HIV/AIDS Society), to create and connect the HIV+ community here on Vancouver Island.

Open call to anyone living with HIV on Vancouver Island, newly positive or long time survivors, we are in search of bloggers and contributors looking to share their unique HIV Positive+ views.

We are our own best resource!

Tell us your story, help fight the stigma, report on something you think is of interest to the HIV community, let us know what other organizations on the island are doing, or just share a picture, some art or a poem. Lets connect the HIV+ community and support one another!

"We can still live Positively with a positive+ status"

Interested? let us know at vpwasblog@vpwas.org

2011-11-06T20:13:00.000-08:00

Don't forget, you can also connect with VPWAS on:

www.twitter.com/vpwas and www.facebook.com/vpwas

Get social and join the conversation!

Friday round-up For November 7,2011

2011-11-04T13:58:00.000-07:00

Friday round-up: your weekly compilation of new and views from around the web we think would be of interest to the HIV+ community.

Celebrating the life of David Desmerais
(December 23, 1964 - October 23, 2011)

When: 1pm, Wednesday, November 9th
Where: AIDS Vancouver Island (AVI)
Third floor, 713 Johnson Street

More information www.avi.org/david

Count Down to World AIDS Day
World AIDS Day is held on December 1st each year and is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died. World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day and the first one was held in 1988.

For listings of events happening in Victoria BC and on Vancouver Island
click here.

Do you have a World AIDS Day event you want listed let us know vpwasblog@vpwas.org

News

Ottawa clinic to send out letters concerning patients' exposure to slight risk of HIV or hepatitis
This past weekend in Ottawa, it was widely released in the media that 6,800 Ottawa patients may have been exposed to slight risk of HIV or hepatitis.

Ottawa Public Health officials will be warning the former patients of a “non-hospital” clinic that there is a very small chance they may have been infected with hepatitis or HIV.

Read more on the Canadian AIDS Society Blog

Canadian Blood Services to review blood ban
On Oct 19 Canadian Blood Services (CBS) announced it would reexamine its policy that excludes men who have had sex with men (MSM) from donating blood. The CBS board of directors has approved a motion to reexamine its policy to reduce the ban to between five and 10 years.

Read more on xtra.ca

October 20, 2011 Spirit Day, Wear Purple

2011-10-19T18:14:00.000-07:00

October 20, 2011 Spirit Day, Wear Purple

October 20, 2011 Spirit Day in honour and support of our LGBTQ Youth.

In early October 2010, Canadian teenager Brittany McMillan promulgated the observance of a new commemoration called Spirit Day, the first observance of which took place on October 20, 2010, in which people wear the colour purple to show support for LGBTQ young people who are victims of bullying.

The name, Spirit Day comes from the purple stripe of the Rainbow Flag, defined by Gilbert Baker, creator of that flag, as 'representing "spirit"

“The Origins of AIDS”

2011-10-18T16:07:00.000-07:00

A fascinating look at the history of AIDS "Chimp to Man to History Books: The Path of AIDS".

Where most books about AIDS start in the 80's “The Origins of AIDS,” published last week by Cambridge University Press, Dr. Jacques Pépin, works forward from 1900 where "Belgian and French colonial policies led to an incredibly unlikely event: a fragile virus infecting a small minority of chimpanzees slipped into the blood of a handful of hunters".

Read more on the New York Times website here.

How does food impact your health?

2011-10-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

The Food Security study is a new national community based research study, which will examine the impact of food insecurity on health outcomes of people living with HIV in Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec.

This study is the first national HIV/AIDS community-based research study to be undertaken in Canada.

Read more about the Food Security Study here.

inSPOT e-cards to notify a partner to be tested for STIs

2011-10-15T11:11:00.000-07:00

Have you ever felt awkward about calling a previous (or current!) sex partner to get checked for an STI? A new service to BC called inSPOT will take away that pressure.

Thousands of people are diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection (STI) every year in BC. When someone has an STI, it is important that their sex partners be tested as well, in order to stop the spread of infection.

inSPOT (inspot.org) is an online partner notification service for individuals diagnosed with STIs. Developed in San Francisco in 2004 and implemented in sites across North America, inSPOT lets people send electronic postcards (“e-cards”) to their sex partners to tell them that they should get tested for STIs.

inSPOT is free and is easy to use. Visitors to the inSPOT website can select and send an e-card to up to 6 partners at a time, and senders have the option of remaining anonymous. Through the website, visitors can also find a comprehensive and up-to-date list of STI and HIV testing locations in their area, as well as information on specific STIs and treatment.

In Canada, inSPOT has been customized for Ottawa, Toronto, and now for British Columbia. There are many ways in BC that people tell their partners that they need to get tested for STIs, including telling them directly themselves, or with the assistance of public health nurses or other health care providers. inSPOT provides an additional and optional tool that people can use to notify their partners themselves when they know their partners’ e-mail address.

inSPOT is owned and operated by Internet Sexuality Information Services, a non-profit agency based in San Francisco. The BC portion of the inSPOT website is supported by the BC Online Sexual Health Services Program at the BC Centre for Disease Control.

If you have questions about inSPOT, contact inspot@bccdc.ca. or visit BCCDC.

Please note that inSPOT is a US-based website and is subject to US laws. The static IP addresses of visitors to this site will be collected as part of routine website operations; this information will be stored for a maximum of 2 weeks, during which time it is subject to US laws.

SCARLET: Our Positive Youth

2011-10-08T11:09:00.000-07:00

SCARLE+ is a 1 hour television documentary which follows 4 HIV affected or infected youth in 4 different North American cities filmed Cinéma vérité style. Filmed in part at VPWAS!

www.indiegogo.com/SCARLETourpositiveyouth

SCARLE+ is a 1 hour television documentary which follows 4 HIV affected or infected youth in 4 different North American cities (late teens to 30) in Cinéma vérité style.

Growing up in the 1980s and 90s we were hammered with terrifying statistics of HIV/AIDS. Thirty years in, we are still learning. What education do youth receive now and why is the youth infection rate still the highest?

We have seen retrospective documentaries about the AIDS crisis and interviews with survivors but what about the positive youth of today? We aim to feature accessible and inspirational individuals and the often rocky road that they’ve travelled to get here.

Each of the 4 doc subjects will be selected to create a dynamic perspective on the reality of living positive. Medical, psychological and educational experts will also weigh in to provide up-to-date facts and a historical context to the reality of living positively.

Friday Round-up for October 7, 2011

2011-10-07T18:50:00.000-07:00

Friday round-up: your weekly compilation of new and views from around the web we think would be of interest to the HIV+ community.

B.C. Smoking Cessation Program
The B.C. government’s Smoking Cessation Program helps people stop smoking or using other tobacco products by assisting them with the cost of smoking cessation aids.
Birth-control hormones linked to easier HIV transmission
Using hormonal contraceptives – such as the birth-control pill or shots of Depo-Provera – boosts the risk of spreading HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, according to a study conducted in seven countries in eastern and southern Africa.
Q&A: Understanding the immune system
When the work of Montreal-born scientist Ralph Steinman was recognized by the Nobel Foundation, it drew attention to his medical research more than three decades ago into the intricacies of the human immune system.

Scotiabank AIDS Walk for Life, 2011 ... Still Time to Donate!

2011-10-04T16:32:00.000-07:00

For this years Scotiabank AIDS Walk for Life, VPWAS was proud to partner with Victoria AIDS Resource & Community Service Society (VARCS) www.varcs.org. Even though it was a rainy September evening in Victoria we were joined by about 160 people to walk from Centennial Square to the BC Legislative lawns, to remember and celebrate the lives of those we have lost to HIV/AIDS, and to come together as a community to break the barriers and stigma related to living with HIV and AIDS, as well as raise funds to help support our members.

We still have not reached our goal yet of $20,000 (split between the two organizations) and still need your help! You can still donate at www.aidswalkforlife.ca/victoria.htm.

If you choose to donate to the M.A.C. Cosmetics team, M.A.C. AIDS Fund will match your pledge!

Stigma

2011-10-02T17:51:00.000-07:00

“If you were rejected every time you disclosed, would you?”

It's time to have this conversation ...

http://www.hivstigma.com/

Compassion. Courage. Community.

2011-09-29T09:39:00.001-07:00

Welcome.

The Vancouver Island Persons Living with HIV/AIDS Society (or VPWAS) is a place where HIV+ people living on Vancouver Island can access Positive+ Peer Support, treatment and health information.

We will be using VPWAS Positive+ Journal as a means of communicating with our members and the general public about upcoming events, news, health updates and topics of interest to the HIV+ community on Vancouver Island. We will also throw in some entertainment, opinions and thoughts, all brought to you by several authors from the HIV+ community on Vancouver Island, each with a unique point of view.

As this is our first attempt a blogging, please expect changes from time to time. And let us know what you think.

Don’t forget to update your e-mail information to get updates at: support@vpwas.org