The English language [him] moderator was recently reminded how DIFFICULT it is to obtain information about HIV from Myanmar to post on the website and to email to readers. The HIV Information for Myanmar website gets tens of thousands of hits per month. Daily emails in English reach several hundred readers inside and outside the country. Google searches on HIV and Myanmar often end up in hits including HIV Information for Myanmar and so do Google searches for Burma and AIDS.

But the [him] moderator rarely receives documents from readers asking [him] to post them.

There may be good reasons not to share information with the [him] moderator. A few internal reports should not be shared. There is always the chance that the [him] moderator will make a well-founded or ill-founded comment on the information that can cause a problem.

But we are all only as sick as our secrets.

Individuals inside and outside the country, people who work in local organisations, staff of international nongovernmental organisations, and the staff of United Nations system organisations can all do much more to share information with others. An easy way to do this is to send it to [him] for posting. To paraphrase one leader's speech half a century ago: "Don't ask what [him] can do for you - ask what you can do for [him]."

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[him] moderator