Sometimes it's good to stand out as special. But for those who are working to combat HIV and AIDS in the region's aboriginal population, they'd rather blend in.
Even though the aboriginal population only makes up less than four per cent of Canada's population, Aboriginal people amount to more than eight per cent of the people in the country living with HIV. Last year in British Columbia, Aboriginal people had more than 13 per cent of all new HIV infections.
Today marks the official launch of Aboriginal AIDS Awareness week, a national event dedicated to demonstrating the importance of focus on the Aboriginal HIV and AIDS agenda and affirming that everyone can contribute to creating change in their own communities.
Members of the Prince George-based Northern Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Task Force recently returned from a two-day conference in Vancouver Nov. 28 to 29 with northern aboriginal leaders and the Chee Mamuk Aboriginal Program of the BC Centre for Disease Control. The task force members shared their findings from a two-year community engagement project.
Throughout the process, task force chair Emma Palmantier and colleagues Colette Plasway and Bonnie Cahoose travelled to 54 communities between Quesnel and the Alaska Highway near Whitehorse.
"There are a lot of fly-in and by-ferry communities. A couple of times I got stranded. This is reality of what people face in times of crisis," Palmantier said.
One of the biggest hurdles to making advances in the fight against HIV is a lack of funding and human resources for these more isolated communities, Palmantier said.
"Health Canada provides funding [for resources and education] based on population. There's one community up north that receives $69 annually," said Palmantier. "[Leaders] really want to provide education and awareness to their communities, but with limited resources, they can't even do that."
The disproportionate number of HIV-infected Aboriginal people also has a lot to do with a lack of education about the disease and how it's spread.
"They just don't know the basic knowledge of HIV and AIDS," the chairperson said, adding there were northern chiefs and leaders who said they had learned a lot during the two-day conference to take back to their communities and were even going to get themselves tested.
The community engagement survey the task force compiled suggests that leaders need to make HIV and AIDS issues more of a priority and that communities also need to support their members who have the disease.
"A lot of those diagnosed are afraid to move back home," said Palmantier, because of the stigma that comes with the disease.
Still, Palmantier said there have been some successes with some communities - which are large enough - implementing HIV programs in their communities.
She added that the task force is grateful for the financial support from Northern Health. "If we did not have the funding, we would not be able to go to all of the communities," she said.
The task force is planning to hold another leadership forum next spring in Prince George.
