UNRAVELLING HIV/AIDS THROUGH REAL STORIES
Anglo American – HIV/AIDS Conference 2016
Anglo American supported the 21st International AIDS Conference, which took place July 2016 in Durban, South Africa.
The conference was themed "Unravelling HIV/AIDS through real stories". The objective of the campaign was to break down, or unravel, the many negative stereotypes and stigmas that exist around HIV/AIDS.
10 brave people from an Anglo American mining community came forward with their inspiring stories of how living with HIV/AIDS has changed their lives and how they have overcome their fear. Their stories challenge the stereotypical AIDS victim story and start to unravel the issue. Stories were displayed on large ribbons with intimate portraits of each of our heroes. The ribbons were woven together – representing the community they are a part of. Using ribbon, we wove each person's name onto the large ribbon. The medium of ribbons was inspired by the strong sense of community that came through in each story as well as the prominence of physical ribbons as well as iconography to symbolise causes like HIV/AIDS.
Outside the conference centre, we placed large installation made up of ribbons. Delegates were invited to take ribbon and where it around their wrist as a sign of their support of the goal of the World AIDS day. Each ribbon had a quote from one of the stories. As the ribbons were removed from the installation, a message was revealed.
