Jerico Paterno
Community Health Outreach Worker, Pinoy Plus Association
Living With HIV
PUBLISHED: DECEMBER 2009
It was in Dubai when Jerico first found out that he's HIV+. It was a surprise and an unfortunate turn of event for Jerico, who, like many migrant workers, dreamt of working abroad to give his family a better life.
“I took the HIV test as part of a pre-employment requirement. I was surprised to find that I tested positive. I had never shown signs of being sick,” he recalls. There was little time for Jerico to get over his initial shock - he was immediately quarantined and deported back to the Philippines.
“I was frightened. I knew very little about HIV, and confused it with AIDS. I thought I didn’t have long to live,” Jerico says.
The issue of mandatory HIV testing as a condition of entry, stay or employment for migrant workers in their destination countries is a subject of debate in the international community. The Coordination of Action Research on AIDS and Mobility (CARAM Asia), a regional NGO that works on health issues and health issues, calls the policy and practice of mandatory testing for migrant workers “discriminatory, dehumanizing and violates migrants’ rights.”
Jerico himself has played an active role in advocating migrant workers’ rights as a member of Pinoy Plus. Jerico has been invited to various international HIV/AIDS conferences in Switzerland and Indonesia to speak about his experience.
“Mandatory testing is just one of the forms of discrimination people living with HIV/AIDS face, there are many others,” stresses Jerico.
To uncover these other forms of human rights violations, Pinoy Plus, together with the UNAIDS, is conducting a study called “The Stigma Index” where people living with HIV/AIDS were interviewed and asked to narrate the details of the own experiences of discrimination. The results of the study are slated for release in early 2010.
PRODUCTION CREW
Photography: Mitch Mauricio
Styling and art direction: Alcs Porras
Make-up: Ana Santos
Hair by Ruel Papa of L'Oreal Professionnel Paris*
Shot on location at Victoria Court, Pasig
Thank you to DKT Philippines, Victoria Court Pasig, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) for their support of this campaign.
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