Stephanie Moore

I am passionate about women's empowerment and women's ways.

My name is Stephanie Moore. I am the Director of Positive Women (Victoria) Inc - an organisation that supports women living with HIV/AIDS.

I have been with the organisation for five years, and became involved because I am passionate about women's empowerment and women's ways. By this I mean: women know how to do things, but often either get overshadowed by men, or believe their way isn't the way. I love seeing that belief challenged and see women growing and changing as their belief in themselves grows.

Here at Positive Women, we have focused on two main strands supporting women already living with the disease:

1. raising awareness of HIV and

2. getting the prevention/education message out to the general public.

We have developed our own unique style of doing this, mainly by being as creative as possible, using theatre, music, art and any other way to show the world we mean business. We have built collaborative and cooperative relationships with the Arts community in order for this to occur.

We have challenged the myths and stereotypes of how people living with HIV should be. We have our own Triathlon Team for example, where, we might not come in first but we have come in second and third!

The usual image of someone living with HIV is that they are sick, dying. We challenge those images.

What I am currently seeing is more HIV positive women coming forward to be spokespeople, telling their story as a woman living with HIV in this country. They have a different story from that of HIV gay men.

Many people have never thought that women can catch HIV, they have just never thought that is a possibility. So when they hear these stories, meet these women, it is a revelation.

Being with this organisation has been hard at times. Often I have thought of leaving sometimes it has all been too much, not only the illnesses but the politics within the sector, the endless grind of trying to get others motivated so HIV is back on the agenda. However no-one wants to see their friends, sisters, children go through what this disease does to the body and mind. That has motivated me to carry on.

Currently over 50% of the worlds HIV population are women and children, that is, over 21 million women and children. It is so easy to become overwhelmed, helpless and start to think of people as faceless statistics.

BUT every positive person is a person with a story. Every HIV positive person is a person with a family. I know many of these statistics - women, just like you or me - that's why I want to ensure, as do our members, that no more women become infected.

Our web site is currently being revamped but you can contact us on
info@positivewomen.org.au or
womensweb1@gmail.com