1001

AIDS

STORIES

  Personal experiences of HIV/AIDS

PANOS_LOGO2

 The Vancouver Initiative for AIDS Innovation

About 1001 AIDS Stories

These personal narratives are from people whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS. 1001 AIDS Stories is an online forum for people with HIV/AIDS and their allies.

In the project’s present pilot phase, the stories are drawn from Vancouver. Later, the site will be open to contributions from around the world. Over time, we hope it will become an exciting, dynamic and inclusive platform for people to communicate about AIDS through storytelling, images and comments. It will link to online social networks, engage diverse cultures and communities, be a portal for HIV information and ideas, and act as a hub for AIDS advocacy and support.

1001 AIDS Stories will be a living inventory of HIV-related experiences – a mosaic of words and images – building a deeper, more nuanced understanding of AIDS today.

When fully developed, the 1001 website will contain hundreds of narratives and images from around the world.

There will be basic information about HIV-AIDS, and links to reliable information sources. Each story will have thematic tags, so visitors can if they wish easily jump to other stories about (for example) youth or seniors, First Nations or gays. Users will be able to post comments, go to 1001 pages on Twitter, Facebook etc, or take part in on-line discussions. We hope that the 1001 site will become an important resource in the fight against AIDS.

Each story consists of text and an image. The visual and written components enrich one another.

The text can be long or short, and should be based on personal experience. The writer keeps ownership (copyright) of the story, and gives Panos a free licence for non-commercial use. Anyone can re-use a story from the 1001 website, but only non-commercially.

The image is as important and powerful as the text. It can be a photo, a painting, a computer graphic, or something downloaded from the internet. (At present, we can’t use video, animation or sound.) As with the text, the original photographer or artist keeps copyright (ownership) of the image, and gives Panos a free licence for non-commercial use or re-use. The 1001 website also has an image bank from which contributors can, if they want, choose something appropriate.

Website design and content by Pieter de Vos, Matthew Blunderfield and Jon Tinker.

The project's goals

To provide a network for inspiring, grassroots, open-access, story-based discourse about HIV-AIDS. To give people, including those who are isolated or marginalised, and those whose voices are not often heard, a place to describe their experiences in their own words and images. To promote awareness, understanding, organisation, action and policy-change To provide a balanced information resource for the media, for educators and others.