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Ganging up to fight Aids

Nancy Koh meets the people behind the Aids And Safer Sex Fortnight.

ROY roped in Doug, who dialled Charles, who called Maxine, who mobilised Stella, who...

With an evangelistic fervour as contagious as the disease they are fighting, the group of volunteers multiplied.

By now, you may have seen posters screaming "Condoms: Your Aid Against Aids", had sample condoms slipped into your palms, or been outraged by the exlicit graphics of condoms being fitted onto an erect penis in pamphlets being distributed all over town.

This bold and brazen, devil-may-dare assault on Aids (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), the scourge of the late 20th century, betrays the youthful candour of the people behing the Aids and Safer Sex Fortnight, which is on till Saturday.

Rounded up by Action For Aids Singapore (AFA) - a society set up last year to carry out Aids education, welfare and research — the volunteers took four months to grind their battleaxes for the blitz.

Dr Douglas Ong, project director, said the fortnight was aimed at young, sexually-actlve people between the ages of 15 and 39, who have the greatest risk of getting Aids.

The ABC message of prevention is this: abstinence, barrier methods, and careful selection of your sexual partner.

The group of 15 had to get sponsors to donate sample condoms and cash for pamphlets and posters to be printed; enlist shopping centres, restaurants, discos, lounges, gyms and health centres, hotels and tertiary institutions to stage events and distribute the pamphlets; as well as invite entertainers and models to perform at the events.

It was no easy task. They had doors slammed in their faces. They were cursed and scolded, or booted out by proprietors squeamish about lending the names of their establishments for an event about Aids.

"Why have you singled us out?" was a typical defensive response. While the group found general apathy towards the scourge, the stigma of Aids hung like an albatross as they made phone call after phone call and trudged the length and breadth of the island.

To the relief of Dr Roy Chan, a registrar at the National Skin Centre who is honorary secretary of the AFA, the volunteers were no strawmen but had rhinoceros-thick skin. They pleaded, they persuaded and they begged.

They had not signed up for fun and games, but were committed to a common goal and belief: to enlighten people with a forthright “tell-it-as-it-is" approach and, hopefully, help to prevent some people from getting Aids

Savouring the camaraderie they have developed together, many of the group of 15 will continue to contribute to AFA, in future events such as the National Health Fair from Oct 28 to Nov 10 and World AIDS Day on Dec 1.

This week's programme of events includes:

• Talking Aids. Lecture by Ng See Ket, consultant at National Skin Centre. Dynamic Fitness Centre, Hotel Meridien, Wednesday, 7.30 pm.

• Talking Aids. Talk by Dr Stephen Phua, medical adviser with Wellcome Pharmaceuticals. Rotary Club of Singapore West at the Boulevard Hotel, Thursday, 1 pm.

• Friends In Aid Of Aids. Concert, dance, fashion show and a hop. National University of Singapore at the Forum, near the Central Library, Friday, 6 pm.

• Aids And Safer Sex. Public exhibition. Parkway Parade, Saturday, 11 am - 9.30 pm.

• Talking Aids. Staff lecture by Dr Roy Chan of National Skin Centre. Pan Pacific Hotel, Saturday, 2 pm.

Why the volunteers are so motivated

■ DR DOUGLAS ONG, 27

Dr Ong, the project director, will be starting his specialty training in radiology. He said: "The problem of Aids is a calling to all health personnels to help. If we don't, how can we expect the layman to? Somebody has got to start, show the way. If not us, who?

“As a doctor, I can emphathise. Imagine yourself young, active, healthy and in the prime of life and suddenly one day, you are told you have Aids and your whole life changes, you are faced with death. Aids is the modern-day leprosy.”

■ SABRINA CHAN, 28

An executive secretary with an accountancy firm who also does social work with the Leng Kee Residents' Committee, Chan signed up because she felt she could contribute with her organisational skills. "It's been taxing getting health clubs and pharmacies to participate to the campaign, but I'm a tolerant person," she said

■ BENHUR LEE, 22

Lee, who will be starting his medical studies at Yale next year, worked with Aids patients when he was studying to San Francisco.

"It was an enlightening experience. It makes one a more compassionate person. Aids patients are not people on the fringe of society, but sick people who have aspirations and goals like the rest of us.

"Coming back here, I was puzzled by the defensive stance of entertainment places who don't want to be associated with any campaign on Aids. In the US, people realise there is an epidemic and they talk more freely and do things more directly".

■ WILFRED ONG, 28

A lawyer who also does legal counselling at community centres, Ong said; “Aids is a terrible disease and the way to prevent it to through education.

“It’s been an uphill task. We've found that Singaporeans are generally coraervative. They’d rather sweep the problem under the carpet.”

■ MICHAEL AW, 30 An assistant manager of a travel agency, Aw said: "My colleagues asked me whether I was afraid of being mistaken as an Aids patient, but it doesn't matter, as I know I'm doing something for a worthy cause," he said.

■ MAXINEE CHEN, 19

Chan, who will be furthering her studies at Oxford University later this year, said: “I’ve no big motivation to cure the world, but I feel good at being able to help people understand the disease better.”

■ CHARLES TAN, 24

A dentist, Tan said the hard work the volunteers have put in would be fulfilling only when people responded to the questionnaire on the pamphlets “with correct undestanding”.

■ GERARD TAN, 31

Tan, an accounts executive in an advertising agency, said: “If we can help a few people from getting Aids and hopefully save lives, it'd be good enough for us".

■ ALBERT YAP, 28

Yap, a communications lecturer with a tertiary institution, took up the challenge with AFA as “my charity contribution”.

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This article was written by Roy Tan.

Archive of "Ganging up to fight Aids", The Straits Times, 11 September 1989

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