Public Health

HOPE: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica

"It's about soul. It's about humanity. It's about beauty, and beauty can be ugly. But it's still beauty." - Kwame Dawes

Poet, writer, and Pulitzer Center grantee Kwame Dawes read from his forthcoming book of poetry and discussed the experiences that inspired his work early Monday evening at Busboys and Poets.

Dawes' work, "Hope", is an assemblage of poems he wrote while exploring and reporting on the parts of Jamaica hit hardest by HIV and AIDS for the Pulitzer Center last winter and spring.

Early last year, Annesha Taylor's face was plastered on billboards across Jamaica. She was living with HIV, taking her medication, eating well and, above all, "getting on with life."

In a society like Jamaica, any talk about HIV/AIDS is going to be about secrets, about taboos, and about the private lives of people.

There are two Jamaicas.

Tourists see the north coast country—its all-inclusive hotels, sunny beaches, and high-end restaurants—and a few fleeting glimpses of what most believe is the worst privation they have ever witnessed. They see half-naked children, zinc-roofed homes, hustled trinkets, and they think poverty. They think they are seeing the other Jamaica, but they are not.

A synthesis of video, photographs, poetry and music, all inspired by Kwame's reporting in Jamaica, can be found on the Emmy award-winning interactive site: www.livehopelove.com

As featured on "Foreign Exchange with Daljit Dhaliwal." A News and Politics editor's pick on YouTube, this video began airing on March 28, 2008.

Stigma and discrimination are fueling the HIV epidemic in the Caribbean. In Jamaica, those living with HIV often face social isolation and harassment.

As featured on "Foreign Exchange with Daljit Dhaliwal." Once a poster child for living HIV+ in Jamaica, Annesha Taylor knows firsthand that life after a positive diagnosis is not an easy one. The campaigns showing that there is life after a positive diagnosis are right — HIV is not a death sentence. But strong stigma and the difficulties of juggling family life, the batteries of medication and bouts of depression have left Annesha fighting to survive.

"Sex Workers Confront HIV" aired on Foreign Exchange the week of January 24, 2008.

Watch the video on the Heroes of HIV interactive website.

Past air dates: week of November 8, 2007

Globalization has intensified competition international trade. While U.S. companies outsource manufacturing to China to increase their profit margins, Chinese labors are paying for the difference.

U.S. lawmakers acknowledge horrendous work conditions in China and are pushing for better labor standards in foreign countries.

A labor organizer who’s helped workers write legal petitions for compensation in China was hacked from head to foot by two men wielding meat cleavers. He remains in critical condition at a hospital.

Antigone Barton was interviewed on South Florida's local PBS station, WPBT Channel 2.

Watch the interview on the Heroes of HIV interactive website.

Watch the video on the Heroes of HIV interactive website.