Confronting AIDS in the Mekong Delta

In the escalating global HIV/AIDS pandemic, the Mekong region of Asia is an increasing area of concern. Several factors have come together in this region to provide a fertile environment for the spread of HIV/AIDS — injecting drug use, a high degree of mobility within and between countries, the thriving sex industry, stigma and discrimination against vulnerable populations, and poverty, among others.

SARAH BREUL /INTERNEWS Ancient religion and modern media co-exist in Thailand. Media coverage of AIDS in the Mekong Delta is limited by social taboos.

The local media in the countries of the Mekong Delta have a critical role to play in bringing attention to the many factors that make people in their communities vulnerable to infection, and in creating a more supportive, enabling environment for effective HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment programs.

Yet Internews’ discussions with journalists and NGOs in the region revealed that the potential of the media to play this significant role has not yet been tapped.

In "Turnaround Time," a new project funded by the British Department for International Development (DFID), Internews Europe and its local partners aim to support the development of a Mekong regional network of AIDS journalist-experts whose leadership can improve reportage on AIDS.

The project is seizing the unique opportunity of the XV International AIDS Conference, held in Bangkok in July, as a starting point to reinvigorate
media interest in HIV issues.

Training community-based groups in the north of Thailand in effective media relations in the weeks before the conference is meant to help them add their voices to the public dialogue during and after the conference.

Following the conference, locally relevant incountry trainings will be held for print and radio journalists in Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, which will culminate with an intensive regional training of identified journalists from the five Mekong countries at end of the first project year.

"Turnaround Time" will be led by media professionals experienced in producing HIV/AIDS news stories in a variety of political settings.