I am beginning to look forward to articles by Nyein Ei Ei Htwe. This is a good one on discrimination.

Wonder why we haven't heard a word from Suu Kyi, the UNAIDS Global Advocate for Zero Discrimination, on #zerodiscrimination day. Is she too suffering in silence?

Jamie

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Suffering in silence
Nyein Ei Ei Htwe
Myanmar Times
Monday, 02 March 2015

The sign at the entrance to the restaurant reads, “Customers can eat here safely. We do not employ HIV-positive staff.” It is not the only business that refuses jobs to HIV-infected people, since deliberate workplace discrimination based on a worker’s HIV-positive status is a common practice in Myanmar.

Ma Pa Pa, 35, is HIV-positive. She used to work at a jewellery shop, but when her husband died of AIDS, the shop owner forced her to be tested for the disease. “When I tested positive, they gave me one month’s salary and kicked me out,” she said. “The owner also threatened to tell other shops that I was HIV-positive if I tried to find a new job,” she added.

“It was a very difficult time for me. I had no income to pay for my treatment or my daughter’s school fees, and I had little chance of finding a new job.”

According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), an estimated 35 million people globally were living with HIV in 2013, and 2.1 million people became newly infected with the virus. In the same year, an estimated 1.5 million died of AIDS-related illnesses.

UNAIDS estimates that there were 190,000 people living with HIV in Myanmar in 2013, with about 6400 becoming newly infected. Infection is especially prevalent among injecting drug-users (18.7 percent), MSM and trans-genders (10.4pc), and sex-workers (8.1pc).

Discrimination against people living with HIV in Myanmar is due to basic misinformation about the virus and how it is transmitted, says Ma Pa Pa, who is now working at a local NGO as a peer to provide healthcare to other HIV-positive people.

Commonly held beliefs about HIV-positive people are that infection is the result of personal irresponsibility or moral fault, such as infidelity, or that it can be easily transmitted via contact with infected people. In the workplace, people living with HIV may suffer stigma from their co-workers and employers or experience discriminatory practices, such as termination or refusal of employment.

“People who are living with HIV have to take a lot of time off work to go to the clinic for treatment, so it’s not easy to find a company that will employ us,” said Ma Pa Pa.

She believes the government should do more to provide job opportunities for people living with HIV because of the discrimination they face when looking for work.

Daw Mya Mya works in a photography studio in downtown Yangon. She doesn’t tell anyone that she is HIV-positive. “I was infected by my husband, who passed away five years ago. Only my son knows,” she said.

She goes to a free NGO clinic in Pazundaung township for her treatment, and lives in fear that she will run into someone she knows through work.

“I take special care not to do anything at work that might make me bleed. Whenever I’m told to do something using a knife, I ask someone else to do it,” said Daw Mya Mya, who says she feels guilty about lying to people, but knows that she will not find another job if she tells her employer she is infected.

“I know I shouldn’t lie, but I don’t accept the discrimination HIV-positive people have to face, and I can’t afford to lose my job. So I decided to keep my mouth shut. But the fear of being found out keeps me awake at night,” she said in tears.

After she graduated, Ma Htwe Htwe Myint bought a small fabric shop in the city. But her life turned upside down in 2003 when she discovered she was HIV-positive.

“My family sent me away to a village because they were worried I would infect them if I lived in the same house. None of my relatives visited me in the village because they were afraid,” she said.

A year later, she moved back to Yangon to undergo anti-retroviral therapy. Since she started receiving treatment her condition has improved, but her family still refuse to speak to her and her father has warned her not to go near them.

“I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t have sex with a lot of men. I fell in love with one man and married him, but everyone treats me like I have a lack of morality,” she said.

Ma Htwe Htwe Myint did not have enough money to re-open her fabric shop, so she opened a small snack shop near a school in her local area.

“Parents wouldn’t allow their children to buy snacks from my shop because they were afraid they would get infected with HIV, so I had to close,” she said.

Depressed and lonely, Ma Htwe Htwe Myint moved to Hlaing Tharyar township to look for work with a local HIV NGO.

“I thought if I stayed with other infected people, they would understand me better,” she said. She started working as a cleaner at the NGO, but when staff learned she had a degree they were quick to offer her a new role.

“They found out that I was skilled in maths and English and asked me to do their accounting, which I was happy to do,” she said.

Now, Ma Htwe Htwe Myint is the secretary of the Myanmar Positive Women Network (MPWN) and campaigns for better healthcare and support for small businesses on behalf of women with HIV.

“Being able to start our own businesses is important. If we try to find work with other people we face discrimination. No one wants to work with us. Besides, we have to take a lot of medical leave, and we can’t do any jobs that might cause us to bleed, so we require a lot of patience and understanding from our employers,” she said.

Dr Kyaw Hlaing, a community mobilisation and networking adviser for UNAIDS, said many HIV-positive people suffered from self-stigma, in effect discriminating against themselves, as well as fearing discrimination from others.

“They face discrimination because people lack knowledge of HIV, so finally they are even afraid to get tested,” he said.

In 2013, UNAIDS launched the “#zerodiscrimination” campaign with support from Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, UNAIDS Global Advocate for Zero Discrimination, and last year it designated March 1 as annual Zero Discrimination Day.

“Last year, our theme was ‘Join the transformation’, which aimed to encourage everyone to help transform stereotypes about HIV-positive people,” said Dr Kyaw Hlaing. “This year’s theme is ‘Open Up, Reach Out’ to people with HIV,” said Dr Kyaw Hlaing.

UNAIDS plans to conduct research into discrimination against people living with AIDS and HIV-positive people in Myanmar. It is hoped that the results will be out later this year.

Some names have been changed to protect identities.

http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/lifestyle/13298-suffering-in-silence.html