HIV/AIDS-THAILAND: Zealous NGOs Force Positive Change

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Jul 9 2004 (IPS) - In February 1997, Anthony Pramualratana walked out from a secure job with the United Nations to plunge into the uncertain world of non-governmental work.

What inspired him was the mission of the nascent non- governmental organisation (NGO) he joined.

That NGO is trying to create a sensitive and productive environment for people living with HIV working in Thailand’s private sector.

Seven years on, Anthony has no regrets, even if it meant him taking a sizeable pay cut, over 50,000 baht, (1,250 U.S. dollars) when he left his U.N. job as a HIV/AIDS management specialist.

”I have realised that in the U.N. system or any large system, you cannot get things to move steadily unlike smaller organisation,” Pramualratana, executive director of the Thailand Business Coalition on AIDS (TBCA), said in an interview.

And his book-lined office on the ninth floor of one of Bangkok’s glass wrapped towers is crowded with details of the TBCA’s engagement with both large and small companies in Thailand.

A TBCA publication boasts of over 1,300 companies, ”covering all major industries from manufacturing, hospitality to banking and pharmaceuticals,” that this NGO has worked with through education, training and sensitisation about HIV/AIDS related issues.

During this month’s 15th International AIDS Conference (IAC), being held in Bangkok from Jul. 11-16, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is due to unveil the latest endeavour of the TBCA.

”It is a code of practise on HIV/AIDS in the world of work which we have been instrumental in developing for the ministry of labour,” 48-year-old Pramualratana said. ”It stands against discrimination, no pre- or post HIV testing for employment and training.”

The TBCA, however, is one among a large family of Thai NGOs that have been the engine pushing Thai governments over the past 20 years to implement healthy policies to combat the spread of the killer disease in this South-east Asian country.

A new report launched on Thursday by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) shed light on the significant role Thailand’s AIDS and public health NGOs have played in a range of HIV-related issues.

”The spread of HIV/AIDS in Thailand spurred new bouts of non- governmental organisation activism and project work,” states the UNDP report, ‘Thailand’s Response to HIV/AIDS: Progress and Challenges.’

”As early as 1984, at least 50 NGOs were working on HIV/AIDS,” adds the report.

By 1999, according to the report, that number had swelled to over 200.

”These groups and their counterparts elsewhere in the country were offering peer support and community AIDS education activities and trying to offset the stigma and discrimination surrounding the epidemic,” it states.

The report reveals the atmosphere some of the NGOs worked in was daunting, since they were assisting ”stigmatised social groups, or they had to develop ”participatory forms of AIDS education and client-centred counselling and support services, as well as campaigning for a human rights-based approach.”

For former Thai AIDS activist Werasit Sittitrai, who was there at the beginning, a sense of despair prevailed with reports emerging that this country had rapidly spreading cases of HIV – the virus that causes AIDS.

”In the early 1980s, there was discrimination, misunderstanding, people with HIV jumped from buildings and committed suicide, people were kicked out of their jobs, kicked out of their homes and villages,” said Werasit, who is now with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

And in responding to the looming crisis, concerned NGOs began to drum up messages that they felt were paramount at the time, he explained during an interview.

They included getting the government and country to admit that there was a HIV problem and the real figure of HIV cases had to be made public. The NGOs also stressed that awareness and education were a must.

In addition, a cry went on for promoting greater condom use to prevent HIV and for those with the disease to be tested anonymously and receive counselling.

”It was the noise of the 1980s that resulted in change and good policies in the 1990s,” he said. ”In early 1990s the government gave 80 million baht (3.2 million U.S. dollars at the time) for NGOs to pursue HIV- related work.”

The UNDP report, in fact, attributes the dramatic drop in the number of HIV cases in Thailand – from a high of 143,000 in 1991 to 19,000 new cases in 2003 – due to the progressive policies pursued by the Thai government in the early 1990s.

Even in Thailand’s impressive achievements in treatment and care of HIV patients, the NGO’s have been credited for leading the charge that led to change.

”The NGOs have been a key force in pushing the government towards action,” added Werasit.

Health ministry officials have welcomed the effort of Thai AIDS and public health activists, given the bridge they have created between policy makers and affected communities.

”We work together through the national AIDS committee, where NGO and government officials sit and discuss policy,” Dr. Petchsri Sirinirund, senior expert on preventive medicine at the Ministry of Public Health, told IPS.

”Some time the government needs to be pushed by society and the NGOs have been good at doing that,” she added.

But during Thursday’s launch of the UNDP report, Mechai Viravaidiya, a member of the Thai Senate and one of the key figures who spearheaded Thai NGOs to combat HIV, admitted that such activism may have to be revived again.

For the 87-page report revealed that Thailand’s success at containing HIV was being threatened by new signs that the infection could return to haunt the country due to a sense of complacency that has taken hold.

They included increasing HIV prevalence among drug users, an increase in the HIV cases of men who have sex with men, and a fifth of the country’s sexually active youth using condoms regularly.

”Since 2002, we have entered a phase of uncertainty,” said Michai.

”Public education is being done by the NGO, but not by the government now.”