AIDS Walk in Vancouver aims for stigma-free future
People living with HIV still face discrimination and isolation, say advocates
Despite advances in treatment for HIV/AIDS, people living with the virus still face discrimination and isolation, according to advocates who are set to mark the 30th time an AIDS walk has been held in Vancouver.
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AIDSWALKVan?src=hash">#AIDSWALKVan</a> is a family event! Bring your <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/family?src=hash">#family</a> sep 20 - we even have a <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/kids?src=hash">#kids</a> acitivities tent <a href="http://t.co/yjCSL4KcsO">pic.twitter.com/yjCSL4KcsO</a>
—@AIDSWALKVan"It's important to see how far we've come. The walk started to save people's lives, now it is a chance to empower people's lives," said event chair Val Nicholson in a release.
- B.C. doctor honoured for ground-breaking HIV/AIDS treatment
- Advances in HIV/AIDS treatments extolled
- A generation free of AIDS
The Scotiabank AIDS Walk for LIFE will take place this morning starting at 11:30 a.m. PT at Sunset Beach in Vancouver's West End. Participants will walk a 6.75 kilometre route along the Seawall.
Organizers say this year the walk will focus on combating the stigma that they say many HIV-positive people still face in their day-to-day lives.
It will promote a new web site, hivanonymous.ca, which is an on-line platform for people who are living with HIV to anonymously talk about how difficult that is, and how they cope with it.
Let's end this stigma together. Share your story about living anonymously with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HIV?src=hash">#HIV</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AIDS?src=hash">#AIDS</a> at <a href="http://t.co/8f5fZ7dAST">http://t.co/8f5fZ7dAST</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HIVanonymous?src=hash">#HIVanonymous</a>
—@HIVanonymousCAAll money raised through the walk will be given to Positive Living BC's Community Health Fund.