Students Work
RESEARCH ISSUE: Life Stories of People with HIV/AIDS
Aims & Motivation
Our main aim is to understand that how HIV/Aids can affect a person emotionally. After reading the lives of HIV patients our heads were hardened and hearts broken with this social ignorance all around the globe. Their lives made us speechless and awestruck. Lot of questions aroused in our minds and left us thinking without any answers! What feelings, sentiments and emotions does he or she go through by being a victim of this disease? What Stigma and discrimination do they face? Why is that so? How does the society treat and behave with these sufferers? What support do they get to fight against their disease? What is their perception about disclosing and revealing their identity – HIV status? Are they fairly and equally treated in this community?
We were sure that we couldn’t leave this issue as it was. Another major idea left unanswered was “What are WE doing in this war against HIV/Aids?” We decided to contribute to this dilemma which is being faced by so many people around the globe.
Mainly, the importance of spreading awareness is a crucial factor. Also we plan to Stop Stigma & Fight discrimination done against People with HIV/Aids. Also we target to award the HIV survivors for their bravery and let the world know about their courage. The
second aspect to our project was to help HIV/Aids students by helping the local HIV/Aids school (Shala No. 10) raise funds for their transportation costs.
Rational
We choose this topic of HIV/Aids because it is becoming a global issue and is abundantly found in our country. We also believe that “one does not know till he experiences; but to get a fair idea we can try to understand their lives.” “Take a walk in my shoes before you judge me!” Also, there are a lot of misconceptions and negative attitude towards this issue that we want to clarify and brainwash amongst the society and the community.
Our main idea can be easily conveyed through this quote –
"HIV is not an adjective so it does not define me. I think MARVELOUS would be more appropriate. I am not living with HIV. HIV is living with me'.
-Marvelyn Brown
Project Plan & Research
Our strategy during this project was to meet our deadlines and to do efficient work in our meetings. We contacted people from all over the world to tell us more about their perspectives on this topic and the way their country faces the issue. We had decided to use each other’s strengths and benefit the most out of it. We had decided to help each other at our weaknesses.
Our strategy was to carry out efficient work and finish it by the given deadline. To do this, we divided our roles. We kept on sharing the information which we found amongst us so that everyone was aware about the data we gathered and were updated. This helped us do more work in less time and finish our project quickly.
The cross-cultural collaboration was done using Gmail, Skype and Facebook. Our communication mode began by mailing people with HIV – letting them know our cause, aims, and outcome. Some of them replied back. We were happy to hear back from them and mailed them a questioner – stating all our focus questions we needed to know about their life. The answers took a little time but were quite impressive as their stories really were inspiring and they could easily show that how this crisis affects them, their lifestyle and their world around.
Also, we were acknowledged with the fact that students having HIV/Aids have to face a challenge by learning in a different school and have a feeling of isolation.
As a whole our research represents a wide range of perspectives, from different sources and most important from primary source (persons who live this in a daily basis).
Project Outcome
Our intended outcome of the project was to study the psychological effects of HIV/AIDS on people. Our main focus is how HIV/AIDs affect a person’s life emotionally and the physiological effects. We have decided to spread awareness and try to understand the lives of people with HIV/Aids. Our outcome is publishing a book containing 8 real life stories of people suffering from HIV/Aids. By this we claim - “Caring for the Outcast - Touching Lives through Movement, Knowledge, & Emotion”. We are all satisfied with our step towards this cause and try to bring about a change in the mind set of common people about people with HIV. We hope we make a difference, though a small one. We chose this topic as we thought that publishing a book was a very unique way of sharing the stories of people who were psychologically affected by AIDS.
Adding on, after our visit to the local HIV school, the principal of the school informed us that it wasn’t even a year, that the school had been established, and now they are planning to close it down because there are no funds for their transportation costs. If the school has to be shut down, the students will definitely suffer a lot. Therefore we decided to plan to raise funds for them by selling our book.
We helped them raise fund of Rs.7800/- to buys books and stationary for the students studying in that school.
Read the stories of HIV Positive heroes who shared their inspiring stories
RESEARCH ISSUE: Life Stories of People with HIV/AIDS
Aims & Motivation
Our main aim is to understand that how HIV/Aids can affect a person emotionally. After reading the lives of HIV patients our heads were hardened and hearts broken with this social ignorance all around the globe. Their lives made us speechless and awestruck. Lot of questions aroused in our minds and left us thinking without any answers! What feelings, sentiments and emotions does he or she go through by being a victim of this disease? What Stigma and discrimination do they face? Why is that so? How does the society treat and behave with these sufferers? What support do they get to fight against their disease? What is their perception about disclosing and revealing their identity – HIV status? Are they fairly and equally treated in this community?
We were sure that we couldn’t leave this issue as it was. Another major idea left unanswered was “What are WE doing in this war against HIV/Aids?” We decided to contribute to this dilemma which is being faced by so many people around the globe.
Mainly, the importance of spreading awareness is a crucial factor. Also we plan to Stop Stigma & Fight discrimination done against People with HIV/Aids. Also we target to award the HIV survivors for their bravery and let the world know about their courage. The
second aspect to our project was to help HIV/Aids students by helping the local HIV/Aids school (Shala No. 10) raise funds for their transportation costs.
Rational
We choose this topic of HIV/Aids because it is becoming a global issue and is abundantly found in our country. We also believe that “one does not know till he experiences; but to get a fair idea we can try to understand their lives.” “Take a walk in my shoes before you judge me!” Also, there are a lot of misconceptions and negative attitude towards this issue that we want to clarify and brainwash amongst the society and the community.
Our main idea can be easily conveyed through this quote –
"HIV is not an adjective so it does not define me. I think MARVELOUS would be more appropriate. I am not living with HIV. HIV is living with me'.
-Marvelyn Brown
Project Plan & Research
Our strategy during this project was to meet our deadlines and to do efficient work in our meetings. We contacted people from all over the world to tell us more about their perspectives on this topic and the way their country faces the issue. We had decided to use each other’s strengths and benefit the most out of it. We had decided to help each other at our weaknesses.
Our strategy was to carry out efficient work and finish it by the given deadline. To do this, we divided our roles. We kept on sharing the information which we found amongst us so that everyone was aware about the data we gathered and were updated. This helped us do more work in less time and finish our project quickly.
The cross-cultural collaboration was done using Gmail, Skype and Facebook. Our communication mode began by mailing people with HIV – letting them know our cause, aims, and outcome. Some of them replied back. We were happy to hear back from them and mailed them a questioner – stating all our focus questions we needed to know about their life. The answers took a little time but were quite impressive as their stories really were inspiring and they could easily show that how this crisis affects them, their lifestyle and their world around.
Also, we were acknowledged with the fact that students having HIV/Aids have to face a challenge by learning in a different school and have a feeling of isolation.
As a whole our research represents a wide range of perspectives, from different sources and most important from primary source (persons who live this in a daily basis).
Project Outcome
Our intended outcome of the project was to study the psychological effects of HIV/AIDS on people. Our main focus is how HIV/AIDs affect a person’s life emotionally and the physiological effects. We have decided to spread awareness and try to understand the lives of people with HIV/Aids. Our outcome is publishing a book containing 8 real life stories of people suffering from HIV/Aids. By this we claim - “Caring for the Outcast - Touching Lives through Movement, Knowledge, & Emotion”. We are all satisfied with our step towards this cause and try to bring about a change in the mind set of common people about people with HIV. We hope we make a difference, though a small one. We chose this topic as we thought that publishing a book was a very unique way of sharing the stories of people who were psychologically affected by AIDS.
Adding on, after our visit to the local HIV school, the principal of the school informed us that it wasn’t even a year, that the school had been established, and now they are planning to close it down because there are no funds for their transportation costs. If the school has to be shut down, the students will definitely suffer a lot. Therefore we decided to plan to raise funds for them by selling our book.
We helped them raise fund of Rs.7800/- to buys books and stationary for the students studying in that school.
Read the stories of HIV Positive heroes who shared their inspiring stories