"If we hold on to our hope, we can handle anything that comes our way" – Prasert Dechaboon, leader of a Thai self-help group for people with HIV/AIDS


With Hope and Help is a video package produced by UNICEF about the reality of living with HIV/AIDS, in the words of people with HIV/AIDS, their families and friends.

Why With Hope and Help?

Where expensive long-term treatments are out of reach, many people with HIV/AIDS in developing countries find that a positive outlook, healthy living and the support of family, friends and neighbours are the keys to a long, productive life.

From With Hope and Help: Vietnam

Each country-specific With Hope and Help set features inspiring, real stories of people who have come to terms with with HIV/AIDS and are motivated, active – and loved. They and their families and friends share their experiences, their coping strategies, and their hopes.

With Hope and Help is a proven, effective tool for counselling people with HIV/AIDS, for raising awareness of the epidemic and prevention steps, and for mobilizing support in families and communities.

UNICEF aims to produce full With Hope and Help packages for the six countries of the Mekong subregion: Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam.

The Package

Films

Each With Hope and Help kit is built around a short film (20-30 minutes long) made up of interviews interspersed with messages from caregivers, health staff and community leaders.

The With Hope and Help films are conceived and produced in-country, with the help of government partners, key implementing agencies, and people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS. Films have now been made for Thailand, Lao PDR, Viet Nam, Cambodia and China.

Facilitators' Manuals

The With Hope and Help films are supported by facilitators' manuals that explore themes and episodes in the films to create a powerful interactive tool in workshop settings.

The With Hope and Help Manual for People with HIV/AIDS is designed to be self-help groups for people with HIV/AIDS, taking film segments as springboards for discussion and reflection.

The second With Hope and Help manual, the Manual for Communities is for use in awareness-raising, anti-discrimination and mobilizations workshops with general audiences, including community groups, service providers, schools and colleges and workers' groups. It invites audiences to challenge their own attitudes and preconceptions about people with HIV/AIDS.

Manual on Self-care

A third With Hope and Help manual, in small format, captures the flavour of the films for people with HIV/AIDS to read at home or when video facilities are not available.

The self-care manual contains practical information and advice for people with HIV/AIDS and their carers on ensuring physical and spiritual well-being. Many of the group discussion exercises in the other two manuals are adapted for individuals to work through on their own.

With Hope and Help in Prevention

The films are especially useful in places where HIV-positive people are not yet able to speak out publicly. Even on video, HIV-positive people can give powerful testimonies to the reality of HIV/AIDS risk. Their first-hand accounts contribute enormously to the effectiveness of prevention messages.

Feedback from workshops where the videos have been shown shows that an invariable response from viewers is:

"She/he has HIV? You can't tell, can you?"

An evaluation at a recent children's seminar indicated that the children learned one new thing:

"People with HIV are ordinary people.

Both of these messages are crucial to acceptance of factually correct information about HIV/AIDS transmission. Without this understanding, prevention education is frequently undermined by received images of people with HIV/AIDS as sickly, disfigured, evil, and inhuman. These images work against the goals of HIV/AIDS prevention and encourage discrimination and abuse of human rights.

With Hope and Help in Care and Support

The advice and experiences of HIV-positive people in the films have been demonstrated to have a powerful effect on people with HIV/AIDS. In China, a group of HIV-positive people were literally transformed from tearful and despairing to smiling and cheerful by viewing the video. The messages they received were, "I am not going to die right away" and "I can do things to help myself remain healthy".

From With Hope and Help: China

The films have also had an impact on the attitudes of community groups – people who are not HIV positive – who begin to empathize with and understand the problems faced by people with HIV/AIDS.

Using With Hope and Help

With Hope and Help has already proven popular with peer-support groups of people with HIV/AIDS, community-based organizations, NGOs and Buddhist groups.

In Thailand, peer-support groups use it in capacity building and in encouraging the formation of new groups.

Young factory workers in Lao PDR watching With Hope and Help

With Hope and Help is also being used to inform and orient service providers and in awareness-raising and mobilizing compassion and support for people with HIV/AIDS among communities.

In Thailand, Cambodia, China and Viet Nam, the With Hope and Help films have already been broadcast over national and local TV, bringing the voices of people with HIV/AIDS to a very wide audience and raising awareness of HIV/AIDS-related events like the Candlelight Rally in Cambodia.

UNICEF and the Thai Red Cross cooperate in provide training in the use of With Hope and Help.

Each of the With Hope and Help films is being progressively made available in original versions and version with English subtitles, and in video cassette and video CD formats. Five With Hope and Help films are currently available, while filming in Myanmar is awaiting official approval.

All of the films are produced by the Thailand-based production company Living Films.

The complete set of manuals is now available in Thai and Lao versions, with English translations. Manuals for other countries are currently being adapted. The facilitators' manuals are spiral bound in A4 format to make them easy to photocopy.

With Hope and Help films and manuals are available free from UNICEF regional and Country Offices.

For information about current availability of With Hope and Help films and manuals, see the Publications page.