News + Events
Positive Women on SBS World News for World AIDS Day 2023
05/12/2023
To commemorate World AIDS Day 2023 (1st December), and raise awareness of women living with HIV, U=U and HIV-related stigma, PWV reached out to all Australians with national media coverage for the screening of Thriving at Federation Square in Melbourne.
Australian media coverage included SBS World News and several online news outlets.
Chrissie, a PWV member and one of the women from Thriving was interviewed by SBS World News for World AIDS Day. Thriving also attracted over 30,000 views on Chrissie’s STOP HIV STIGMA Facebook page.
Thriving is an inspiring filmed performance poem featuring seven remarkable women living with HIV.
Filmed in Australia, Thriving was a collaboration between seven women living with HIV and performance poet Fleassy Malay with filmmaker Ryan Lee Adams.
Produced by Positive Women Victoria (from Australia) with an unrestricted grant from ViiV Healthcare Australia.
PWV members, staff and supporters at the screening of Thriving at Federation Square on World AIDS Day 2023
About Thriving
Thriving is a beautiful, inspiring and emotional filmed performance poem featuring seven women living with HIV who collaborated with Melbourne performance poet Fleassy Malay and speaks of the importance of visibility and inclusion for women with HIV.
The aim of Thriving is to raise awareness of the experiences of women living with HIV and the HIV-related stigma they face as well as the global U=U message (Undetectable equals Untransmittable). U=U is based on more than 20 years of scientific evidence that a person with HIV who is on antiretroviral treatment and has an undetectable viral load, can not transmit HIV sexually.
Thriving will be shared publicly with Australian and international audiences for the first time on World AIDS Day on the 1 December 2023. More than half of the 38 million people living with HIV globally are girls and women, and HIV-related stigma impacts their physical and mental wellbeing, and often on a daily basis. They live in fear of their HIV status being shared with others; they can be rejected by family, friends, employers and community if found out; they can be criminalised; and they often have their sexual and reproductive rights denied.
Thriving was written by Fleassy Malay in collaboration with women living with HIV who reflected on their experiences in a series of workshops and was produced by Positive Women Victoria with an unrestricted grant from ViiV Healthcare Australia.
“We have blossomed in the harshest of terrain. Warded off plague and blame, and found a place to place our roots. We are fragrant, vibrant, and brimming with life.”
Words from Thriving, a filmed performance poem
PWV Staff (LtoR) Heather Ellis, Kirsty Machon (EO), Bernadette Roberts and Melissa Iddles at the World AIDS Day Community Event held at The Peter Doherty Institute in Melbourne, raised awareness of the U=U message. Undetectable equals Untransmissable.