October 2007: Being a UNICEF Ambassador in India

Thanks to my work with Unicef, I was given the opportunity to visit communities in India to talk about my story.

And, in India my story was welcomed with open arms. People there were waiting for me. I have never been amazed like that in my whole life.I have never been amazed like that in my whole life.
It has really changed the way I look at things.

India, is a very complicated country. They have the highest rate of HIV in Asia, a lot of kids are living in the street, there is lack of employment and it has been hit hard by gender problems. So, I didn't think that women would be active in the way they are--especially because of the gender problems.

But when I got there, there were girls that had run away from their homes--their villages-to come to town to work on HIV/AIDS. They are HIV/AIDS activists. Some of them are positive and are teaching people to speak out about AIDS. The part that amazed me the most was that I have never heard of a project that is teaching people to speak out about AIDS.

I have never heard of it!

And it was a wonderful thing to see that these women go door to door and encourage people to speak out. Those young women really inspired me. Their passion for life, even if they are infected with HIV.

The most important thing that I learned is that I pitied myself that I lived in a poor community, but I see that even if I lived inaa shack, I still had a bed to sleep on and food to eat. In India, life for infected people is much harder. You will see an entire family--mother, father children, living on the street. When a person is down like that, it is very difficult to bring them up.

When I think that my story was acknowledged and helped people in those situations...Well, it is something that  I can't even explain. Some people even made different choices after hearing my story. Some of the women have had abortions more than two times because of their status, but once I went there they actually gave it a chance to have a baby that would be negative.

Another important thing I learned from the people in these communities, especially the women, is to never let a situation put you down. It made me realize that you don't need money to do certain things. If you have your hands, you have your mouth, you have your brain, then you can just speak.

One last thing to say is that there is a film that was made of this experience by Unicef by a great lady named Sarah who I went to everything with. Maybe I will post it later on, so that you can experience for yourself what I am talking about.