AIDS activists raise flag, seek to raise awareness
Diagnosed in 2005, Debbie Roberts is one of 18 family members that she says were infected with HIV by a relative.
“We were using drugs at the time and he used our needles when we didn’t know,” said Roberts. “He even gave it to his own daughter.”
With Saskatchewan’s HIV rate being the highest in Canada, the family is far from alone.
Roberts was part of a modest crowd celebrating the inaugural raising of the Saskatchewan provincial HIV awareness flag at the Legislative Building in Regina on Friday morning. She is also a peer support worker for AIDS Saskatoon and works with women out of the Pine Grove Correctional Centre.
Those gathered celebrated the raising of what Jason Mercredi — executive director of AIDS Saskatoon — hopes will be a “rallying symbol for the community to get involved and raise awareness.”
While there was an air of optimism about the progress that has been made, calls were made for a more collaborative approach to combating the issue of HIV and AIDS in Saskatchewan.
“We need the federal government to step up to the plate in terms of properly funding HIV work in this province,” said Mercredi. “We’re not seeing the same levels of funding that B.C. received when they were in the middle of their epidemic.”
Considering Saskatchewan is now ground zero for the HIV epidemic in Canada, Mercredi said, the funding difference is concerning. AIDS Saskatoon reported a 22-per-cent decrease in funding from Ottawa in 2016.
But funding isn’t the only solution to the complicated problem.
The number of Saskatchewan residents newly diagnosed with HIV has increased by 33 per cent over the past decade despite a 45-per-cent increase in prevention funding.
In a news release, the Canadian Public Health Association says nationally, the number of new infections remains relatively unchanged despite years of investments.
Also in the release, the association “calls upon all levels of governments, non-governmental organizations, service providers and citizens to reflect on and to refocus our collective efforts to reduce the number of new HIV infections every year, and tackle the barriers — including stigma — that hinder HIV prevention, testing and support.”
It’s a sentiment mirrored by Mercredi, who called for a multi-year provincial HIV strategy, which he says Saskatchewan doesn’t currently have.
“Right now, HIV work throughout the province is pretty fragmented,” he said.
Mercredi said all levels of government, AIDS service organizations and especially people living with HIV need to work together in order to come up with effective strategies.
Mark Ingram, a peer support worker like Roberts, said he’d like to see more people like himself come forward to help people living with HIV.
Diagnosed after entering a Saskatchewan penitentiary in 2013, Ingram began educating himself and fellow inmates. When he got out in 2016, he starting working with AIDS Saskatoon.
“I’ve been ridiculed, I’ve been beat up. I’ve gone through my share of crap. I’m still here kicking and teaching everybody I can,” he said.
Mercredi hopes AIDS service organizations will work together to talk to the municipal, provincial and federal governments. He said they plan to meet sometime in the new year.
The flag is green and gold — to represent Saskatchewan — with a tiger lily wrapped in a red AIDS ribbon in the centre. The tiger lily was chosen after one was planted outside AIDS Saskatoon’s drop-in centre by a person living with HIV.