The Blogging Positively project began two years ago when Kenyan blogger Serina Kalande, volunteered to lead a working group to discuss how citizen media can best be implemented in the field of HIV/AIDS. Many of the project proposals we've received at Rising Voices have been related to spreading awareness about the pandemic. We wanted to learn from those proposals - and also from existing citizen media initiatives - to better understand how new media tools can be used most effectively to spread awareness and encourage discussion about HIV/AIDS-related topics. We also wanted to better understand some of the risks and obstacles facing bloggers who are HIV-positive, or who regularly write about HIV/AIDS-related topics.

Three online chats brought together people from all over the world, and from a wide range of fields. In addition to the creation of this guide, the participants of the chats collaborated on the creation of a map-based directory of HIV-positive bloggers who bravely defy stigma and discrimination to communicate their situation to the rest of the world.

To celebrate the release of the Blogging Positively guide, which has been two years in the making, today we begin a one-week campaign to update our map of HIV positive bloggers. If you are a positive blogger, or if you have suggestions for links to add to the directory, please send a message to Global Voices Public Health Editor Juhie Bhatia.

The Blogging Positively guide was authored by Janet Feldman of the Kenya AIDS Intervention Prevention Project Group and ActAlive, which encourages the use of the arts and media to address HIV/AIDS and other human-development challenges. Additional contributions were made by Solana Larsen, Sahar Romani, and Juhie Bhatia. Daudi Were coined the term “Blogging Positively.”

The importance and impact of this guide depends on our collective ability to get it into the hands of activists, and to encourage their contributions to the global conversation that is curated and amplified everyday on the Global Voices website. Please consider sharing this with your network of friends and blogging about it. If there are HIV/AIDS organizations and support groups in your region, please send them a copy of the guide.

Finally, if you would like to learn more about what bloggers around the world have to say about the AIDS pandemic, don't miss our Conversations for a Better World series which has so far featured commentary about HIV/AIDS from bloggers based in Africa, China, Cambodia, and the Middle East & North Africa.

There are 79,000 people (or 3.5 percent of all adults) in Congo living with HIV/AIDS. AZUR Development's AIDS Rights Congo project, funded through a Rising Voices grant, is working on documenting the stigma and discrimination that these people face. They are doing this in part by posting stories of their experiences on a blog. Through the project, communication officers and leaders of local HIV and AIDS organizations have also been trained in digital story telling, podcasting, and blogging. Each communication officer is using these newfound skills to share stories of how HIV/AIDS is affecting the local community where he or she works.

Citizen media training session for communication officers and leaders of local HIV and AIDS organizations.

The latest posts on the project's blog reflect how different segments of Congo's HIV-positive community have been impacted by the stigma that accompanies having the disease. A few of the posts focus specifically on women, who make up 59 percent of those living with HIV/AIDS in Congo.

For example, a post by Dieudonnée Blandine Louzolo, AZUR Development's Communication Assistant, discusses how the quality of health care is compromised for HIV-positive women. Though HIV/AIDS services have been expanded in the city of Pointe-Noire, the negative attitude of health professionals still poses an obstacle to these women getting proper care. It's a catch 22 for many of these women: they're encouraged to get tested for HIV, but if they test positive they often pay a price. The post elaborates on how this applies to pregnant women.

Health professionals working at hospitals, who should be providing moral and psychological support for the patient, are leaving women at birthing beds as they fear HIV infection; thus some recommendations of ethics are no longer fulfilled.

An HIV-positive woman lost her baby during childbirth at a hospital in Pointe-Noire because she was HIV positive and no midwife wanted to touch her. Many of them after treatment with PMTCT [Program for Prevention of Mother to Child] are abandoned… Another HIV-positive pregnant woman was saved by a midwife trainee, although her child died after birth; again in this case the midwife feared infection.

In maternity hospitals, women with HIV do not know what to do if a midwife asks them to wear gloves covering their hands and arms. Sometimes their HIV status is disclosed to their families by health professionals without their permission…

…Rejection, reluctance, and the abandonment of women infected with HIV continues. AIDS activists should act to stop such discrimination, which violates the right to health care for HIV-positive women.

Sylvie Niombo, the project's leader and executive director of AZUR Development, writes a post about another group of HIV-positive women who experience discrimination: indigenous women. AZUR Development helped conduct a project about home-based care for indigenous women living with HIV/AIDS in the province of Lékoumou. This region has the highest rate of HIV in Congo. In the post Niombo reflects on the project's outcomes:

Called pygmies, the indigenous people in the province of Lékoumou live in extreme poverty and away from the majority of the population (the Bantu). They live in huts, surviving thanks to the products of hunting and gathering in the forests. Pygmies have little access to education and basic social services. They are discriminated against by the Bantu people, who generally consider themselves superior to pygmies.

Many pygmy women and men serve as cheap labor for the Bantu people. But when HIV/AIDS gets involved, it further complicates an already precarious situation. Indigenous women are also vulnerable to HIV/AIDS and doubly stigmatized….

…When they come for the first consultation at the hospital in Sibiti, after testing HIV positive, indigenous women do not usually return. That’s understandable. Who will pay for transportation, meals and to stay in Sibiti so they might hopefully survive HIV/AIDS? The answer is easy to find: nobody! Already regarded as ‘less than nothing' by some Bantu people, it is difficult to imagine that they can look at them.

AZUR Development and ACIP wanted to create something new, implementing a project to train HIV-positive indigenous and Bantu women to take care of themselves and their peers.

HIV-positive women aren't the only ones being stigmatized though. Dieudonnée Blandine Louzolo also discusses how having HIV/AIDS can affect prisoners in Congo. The post shares a story about a male prisoner in Pointe-Noire and how his and other prisoner's stories reflect the need to advocate for the rights of those living with HIV/AIDS, rather than just focusing on prevention.

At Pointe-Noire, Congo, a HIV-positive married man and father was released from prison when the police became aware of his HIV status. The deep meaning of his story must be analyzed.

We will never tire of saying that HIV/AIDS continues to be a subject of controversy and stigma even in police stations.

An HIV-positive man who had committed an offence was jailed at the police station in his neighborhood and was waiting for the outcome of the procedure that was underway. He was released because the policemen feared that he would infect other prisoners.

Blogging is one way that AZUR Development is trying to bring these stories of discrimination to the forefront. Another vehicle they're using to combat the stigma and raise awareness of issues related to HIV/AIDS is radio. The organization has produced various radio programs with CJESS, a youth group in Pointe-Noire that looks at sexuality issues. Niombo elaborates on how these radio broadcasts are helping to shift the way people perceive those with HIV/AIDS:

‘This is not content that we used to listen to,' said listeners. Herman Malanda, CJESS Coordinator and host of the radio programme, said that the listeners were surprised and interested in the programs. SMS and calls were made requesting more information on AIDS treatment and how people could live with HIV.

What was interesting about these radio programmes is that they have broken the taboo and helped deal with the lack of information on how a family can care for a person infected with HIV.

We often hear that parents don’t want to spend their money on an HIV-positive person, since the person is regarded as ‘dying' and therefore there's no need to waste their time. These radio programmes therefore are aimed at educating families about the fact that living with HIV is not a crime and everyone should be loved. Solidarity should be shown for people living with HIV.

The organization plans to run other radio programs in the future on focused on HIV/AIDS and violence against women and girls.

AZUR Development is based in Brazzaville, Congo, but they work to provide leadership in the socio-cultural and economic development of all of Congo. They launched the AIDS Rights Congo project last year with the help of a Rising Voices micro grant. Through this project they are training communication officers and leaders of local HIV and AIDS organizations in digital story telling, podcasting, and blogging to help document the stigma and discrimination faced by people infected by HIV/AIDS in Congo.

During the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, AIDS Rights Congo participated in Take Back The Tech's campaign to reclaim information and communication technologies to end violence against women. As part of this, AIDS Rights Congo blogged about the rights of women infected and affected by HIV/AIDS and shared their thoughts on violence against women.

AIDS Rights Congo also aired radio broadcasts in Pointe-Noire from December 1 to 10 on the topic of violence against women. To encourage people to reclaim technology such as cell phones to achieve positive outcomes, they asked listeners to send SMS messages or call in with their thoughts on the issue. As incentive, two mobile phones were awarded to listeners who sent SMS messages appealing to fight sexual violence against women and girls in Pointe-Noire. Sylvie Niombo, the project’s leader, talks about reactions to their broadcasts:

The SMS response was huge and the responses will be online soon. The SMS talks about sexual violence, and domestic violence against women and girls. It was a good way of expression. And then after posting them on the Internet, we will invite readers to comment.

AIDS Rights Congo has already posted some of the SMS responses, which show how Congolese women and girls experience domestic and sexual violence, and how men perceive violence against women.. For example, this post lists SMS responses received from Congolese women who have suffered violence because of their husbands:

Despite all forms of violence that I suffer at the hands of my husband, I consider them as accidents and I think he will change.

We are forced to suffer all forms of violence, because we love our men, despite their violence, and also because of the children. And sometimes we don't have a good social situation, because there is nothing for us anymore at our parents' home.

Yes, you're scared of losing our home if ever we think to lodge a complaint or ask ourselves where will we live, especially when you don't work.

We don't know who to turn to when we are victims of violence, because our friends give bad advice.

For fear of further abuse, we are sometimes obliged to go along with the decisions of our husbands, even when they are bad.

My husband asked me for forgiveness only once since we've been together.

Why don't you raise these kinds of issues all the time? Thank you for the advice.

Does justice really care about these kinds of problems? When I went to the police (PSP), I was told we had to settle amicably, because he is my husband.

In this post, AIDS Rights Congo shares SMS messages sent by men expressing their thoughts on violence against women:

Men taking alcohol is one of the main causes of men beating women.

I would say that domestic violence is a strategy for men to have control of the home, and so the family in general. For if a man is not violent, the woman does not pay attention to you.

If my wife takes me to court, I drive her out of my home. I replace her with another. Many women enjoy violence to live well.

Sometimes the women themselves are the causes of the violence against them.

Our women are truly victims, because they don't dare speak for fear of being hit again.

When a man marries, he must give laws. If these laws are not respected? It is important to apply force.

In addition to the work done with the AIDS Rights Congo project, AZUR Development also carried out other activities in Pointe-Noire during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. They held a workshop to raise awareness on violence against women, sexuality, and HIV/AIDS, which was attended by more than 160 women, as well as advocacy meetings defending the rights of HIV-positive women and their families.

Translations of French blog posts into English by Jennifer Brea.

AZUR Development trained communication officers and leaders of local HIV and AIDS organizations at its head office in Brazzaville, Congo, this past summer on advanced Internet usage and how to create digital stories. Specifically, the participants were taught the basics of blogging and how to use Flickr to publish photos. They also learned how to use Windows Movie Maker. Roméo Mbengou, AZUR Development's Information Coordinator, elaborates on this training session.

To enable these organizations to document their activities, digital cameras were awarded to the participants. They did not hide their satisfaction. According to Jean Pierre Mahoungou of the association Bomoyi, ‘This training allows us to better document our experiences in the fight against AIDS now that we now have cameras to take pictures.'

This training will lead to the production of articles, reports or stories by digital communication officers.

Internet training session

The trained communication officers and members of AZUR Development have started posting a wide range of stories on their observations and experiences with HIV/AIDS in Congo. For example, Mbengou interviews Parfait Bitsindou, a psychologist at the Center for Ambulatory Treatment in Brazzaville, about issues related to psychological support for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Another post describes a community dinner organized by a women's organization to help curb malnutrition among those with HIV/AIDS. A nutritionist was on hand to provide advice on how to eat healthy at home. The dinner brought together more than 45 people living with HIV/AIDS.

Cooking at a community dinner for those with HIV/AIDS

Sylvie Niombo, leader of this Rising Voices project, posts a story about discriminatory remarks made by the morgue director and town councillor in Pointe-Noire, Congo. She says:

On 3 September the morgue director and town councillor publicly insulted people living with HIV/AIDS who were going to Adolphe Cissé hospital to support friends who were in a more critical state of illness as well as PLWHA had come for the food distribution programme. It would seem that the reason behind this is that a taxi had parked badly and held up traffic for a few minutes and thus prevented him from passing. The despicable abuse is said to have been hurled towards those living with HIV, even going so far as calling them the living dead who would become ice cubes in the morgue in the near future.

In response, people living with the virus and associations fighting against AIDS met with the town’s mayor to criticize this public abuse and request the municipality's support to sensitize authorities and organizations on the rights of those living with HIV.

Davy Herman Malanda posts another account of discrimination, sharing the story of Bernadette (a pseudonym), a young woman who is a second-hand clothing vendor at the Tié-Tié market in Pointe-Noire. She is the breadwinner of the family, but this changes when she discovers she's HIV positive. A friend she confides in divulges Bernadette's HIV status, breaking her trust and changing her life:

Her colleagues and clients from the market are informed that she is HIV-positive. Very few clients come from now on to buy at Bernadette’s table. Her life becomes difficult, and she has difficulty in making ends meet. At the market, her neighbors immediately desert their tables; which even attract the attention of those responsible for managing the market, who, conscious of the fact that having a table at the market is a difficult thing, are surprised to find empty tables around her. The situation has put everyone on alert, and those passing from far away can hear the neighbor’s gossip on the fact that she is a woman infected with HIV. However there are no outward signs that Bernadette is sick, one cannot read it on her face. The illness is not at an advanced stage and she is not on ARV [Antiretroviral] treatment. She is simply a normal young woman.

In a setback, traumatized by the situation, she stops her little shop.

In another post Aurelie, who lives in Brazzaville, shares her story, one that is filled with hope. She talks about how she was diagnosed with HIV, the news hitting her “like a ton of bricks ” and filling her with despair. But Aurelie goes on to describe the support she received from her family and an HIV/AIDS organization.

One day, I went to the hospital to get treatment, and I met a woman from the Positive Women Association of Congo (AFPC). She explained to me what she did and invited me to take part in an open group discussion. At first, I didn’t think it was for me, but the day I went to the discussion, I quickly fit in. I was delighted by the prevailing atmosphere, my morale was reinforced, and no more worries. I had friends, thus a new sun appeared in my life. I was simply myself and not shut in a room to mope…

…The support of my family and the support I found at the AFPC really changed my life. I realize that we’re not alone. I’m a woman, and I lead a normal life like everyone. That’s my story.

The organization is now taking things a step further, by documenting the stigma and discrimination faced by people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in Congo. They are training communication officers and leaders of local HIV and AIDS organizations, members of their AIDS Network Africa initiative, in digital story telling (including video and photography), podcasting, and blogging. Each communication officer will then use this technology to share stories of how HIV/AIDS is affecting the local community where he or she works. This project is one of the six new health-focused citizen media outreach projects that were announced in June by Rising Voices and Open Society Institute’s Health Media Initiative.

It is hoped that these documented stories will be used as a tool for advocacy and education, helping to promote the rights of HIV-positive people. Currently 79,000 people are living with HIV in Congo, and 6,400 people in the country died of AIDS last year. Sylvie Niombo, the project's leader, says that these people are constantly subjected to discrimination and stigma, adding:

People living with HIV/AIDS have some of their rights harmed because of their serological status and receive very little assistance in defending them…This project allows us to document the stigmatization and discrimination of people living with HIV, in particular women infected by HIV in Congo, in their own words and those of the organizations of which they are members.

AZUR Development's main office is located in Brazzaville, the capital and largest city in Congo. The city rests on the west side of the Congo River across from Kinshasa, the capital city of neighboring country the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This video shows some images of Brazzaville.

Though the organization is based in Brazzaville, it works to provide leadership in the socio-cultural and economic development of all of Congo and Africa. Their projects range from providing leadership skills to young women to using information and communication technologies for development to work focused on HIV/AIDS. Technology has played a big role in their work. They started blogging in 2006, writing about the organization's activities in Congo, and then launched a blog on the rights of native people (Pygmy groups) in Congo. They also coordinate an initiative called AIDS Network Africa, for which they have a blog that recounts stories, testimonies, and activities on HIV/AIDS and malaria from the network's members, and have conducted workshops on the use of computers and the Internet. These photos show some of their projects.

For this particular project, the organization has conducted two workshops in Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire, training 15 communication officers and leaders of HIV and AIDS organizations on how to create blogs and multimedia stories. Some of these organizations were also given digital cameras. Through their blogs and digital stories, these trained communication officers and organization leaders will share stories about the daily lives of people living with HIV/AIDS, the challenges they confront, and the stigmatization and discrimination they face. Niombo elaborates:

People living with HIV/AIDS are laid off because of their illness, sometimes without accompanying measures; very few employers agree to give responsibility to HIV positive employees; they are dispossessed of their property by their families especially when they are in the final stages of the illness; they do not have access to quality care and to antiretroviral treatment in rural areas; and very few of the people living with HIV/AIDS know what their rights are and how they can contribute to safeguarding and defending them. In particular, women infected with HIV are the most vulnerable. They are accused of having brought the illness into the family and are abandoned or chased from their homes.

Niombo says that most of the Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire workshop participants discovered blogs for the first time. In addition to documenting stories, they are also using blogging to publish information about their organizations, since most don't have Web sites. However, she adds that Internet access is usually only available in Internet cafés. Since these cafés cost at least $1 US an hour, the communication officers are only able to go once or twice a week. Still, she says, the participants are grateful:

The organizations welcomed this action [the workshops] of AZUR Development, because they told us that they always asked their local partners to strengthen their capabilities in the efficient use of the Internet to no avail. This project thus responded to a real need in the field to make use of technology to advance the rights of people living with HIV.

AZUR Development has finished the initial training, and has began publishing the communication officers' articles on the project’s blog in French and English. The next step is to buy audio equipment, so they can begin podcast training.

Interview with Sylvie Niombo translated from French by Sabriya Fisher.