From Advocacy to Activism: Areerak's Journey

As with all of us who are trying to achieve something, change something, motivation comes from somewhere deep, a personal experience that provides us with the fire to keep on going even when the obstacles seem insurmountable.

Areerak is no different. A lack of information about contraception and safe sex options throughout her teenage years and early adulthood, led to Areerak giving birth to two children and contracting HIV from her husband. Her desire to know her HIV status and find out about protection for her children led her to many clinics around Thailand. Some refused her assistance, others gave her no information and all gave her no options for what her and her children's future might hold. Faced with a husband who still insisted on having sex without a condomม and his family who refused to care for her or her children from fear of infection, Areerak made the brave decision to leave, and to travel to a shelter for women and children. She spent some time there and started to meet more people living with HIV. She saw that she and her children could live healthy, happy, full lives and set about to talk to other women in the same situation about what they could do in their lives to make a difference, where she hadn't been able to.

As a volunteer with the Raks Thai Foundation, a member organisation of the Asia Pacific Alliance, funded by the Packard Foundation, Areerak had the opportunity to attend the 8th APA Conference held in Bangkok in 2006. Here she learnt the skills of transferring the messages from her story into evidence for Parliamentarians to use to make change happen at policy level. To the 60 people who attended the session, Areerak's powerful story, told through a translator, provided a perfect example of how a personal story should and can be used as evidence for change. For Areerak, it was a step on her journey as an advocate and activist, working to improve the situation of HIV positive women everywhere.
This journey has continued for Areerak. She is now a confident and articulate speaker at HIV workshops around Thailand, and is clear about the specific changes that need to be made particularly for HIV positive women, around PMTCT and drug use. She facilitated an Advocacy Workshop for Thai positive women to help them develop their personal stories into evidence, and to take their messages with her to Sri Lanka where she travelled to the 8th ICAAP meeting. There, she spoke in the Main Auditorium to a group of Parliamentarians about her journey and the ongoing need for changes in policy and law to be achieved for positive women in Thailand and around the region.

Areerak continues to step forward as an activist for change. She is an advocate who has helped herself and countless others realize that it is important to make choices and information available to HIV positive women in the community.

To learn more about the APA / ADB Project, contact Regional Coordinator Rose Koenders by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it