1985/86. HIV/AIDS education on the cheap
From 1985 to 1987 I was involved with Nottingham AIDS Information Project – a voluntary organisation with an annual budget of £1,000 from the local Health Authority. With such limited funds it goes without saying that commitment and creativity was the order of the day!
And so it was when it came to producing our first information leaflets. Unable to afford the services of a graphic artist or suchlike, I came up with the idea of the paperchain. This was, in part, meant to convey the message of connectedness – that AIDS affected us all, irrespective of whether or not we actually had the disease.
When making up the leaflet I did, literally cut out lines of ‘paperchain people’. In this case they’re all women; those with long dresses were meant to communicate Asian women in saris. Possibly a bit of a stretch but inclusivity was always important to us.
Once the paperchains were complete they were then reduced to a fraction of their original size on a photocopier – real high-tech stuff – prior to being laid out onto the leaflet.
It’s interesting to note from the leaflet that, whilst the term HIV had now entered our language, it was still interchangeable with LAV and HTLV III.
A few months later we must have had a little bit of spare cash because we did employ an illustrator to do our Safer Sex Guide for Gay Men.
This was a shameless rip-off of a leaflet I picked up in San Francisco in 1983, which had been produced by the Harvey Milk Gay Democratic Club. It appealed to me because it made the point that safe sex could still be as much fun as unsafe sex.
And, if I remember correctly, British AIDS organisations didn’t seem to be endorsing condom use as a safe sex strategy as strongly as US and Australian organisations were. I think this was probably down to an initial concern that they might not be used properly, given that they hadn’t originally been created for anal sex plus the dangers of using the wrong lubricant that might melt the latex and so on.
AIDS education has become a lot more sophisticated since we produced this material but if this ‘cheap and cheerful’ approach prevented just one infection then it’s all been worth it as far as I’m concerned.
It was still on a bit of a budget after then. 🙂 I remember popping over quite often to see Sue Loakes – we had met at LASS in Leicester.
I was moderately useful with IT but was also happy to sit for hours stapling booklets or trimming flyers. I seem to remember making “happy bags” with condoms, lube and a leaflet. Think we even included a tissue – for the niceties afterwards.
Weird, there was a lot of worry and anxiety in the community then – but also a pretty good feeling of camaraderie.
I remember meeting some other people who were involved in running the group but sadly my memory for most names is pretty grim.
Interesting times – and great to see it still being discussed 🙂
Early HIV and AIDS education campaigns reveal how communities tried to spread awareness despite limited resources and widespread fear. Grassroots efforts often became essential in sharing information and encouraging safer health practices. Which low cost awareness strategy had the greatest impact within affected communities?