Serzh Golovach "STARS AGAINST AIDS"

Read also

In an unprecedented project, STARS AGAINST AIDS, UNAIDS has brought together a group of accomplished women from Russia and Ukraine. Female leaders from the artistic, media and sports communities have joined their talents to ensure a proactive response to the HIV/ AIDS epidemic. They share a deep concern about the health and future of their nations.
They are alarmed by the high number of new infections of HIV/AIDS cases registered in their countries and by the on-going feminization of the epidemic. In 2007, 44% of all new HIV cases in Russia were registered among women resulting in an increasing number of children born to HIV-positive mothers.
It is not by chance that UNAIDS has invited these women to support the project STARS AGAINST AIDS. Women are traditionally the hearth holders, caring for their children and the health and happiness of their families. These women have participated in the project to help dispel the taboos and prejudice that often surround HIV/AIDS and to increase tolerance towards people living with HIV.
This project is about love and respect for those that are close to us and about tolerance and understanding for those who are different.
Well known photographer, Serge Golovach, has captured this concern and sense of empathy in his portraits of the women participating in this project.

Acknowledgements:
Marina Alexandrova, аctress
Maria Arbatova, writer
Yuliya Bordovskikh, TV presenter, NTV channel
Maria Gaidar, leader of youth movement “Da”
Masha Gessen, journalist
Diana Gurtskaya, singer, distinguished artist of the Russian Federation, Head of the Board of Trustees of “Po Zovu Serdtsa” charity fund
Svetlana Zakharova, Bolshoi Theatre prima ballerina
Maria Kiselyova, Olympic Champion, Member of the of Public Chamber of RF
Dina Korzun, Actress, Co-founder, Give Life Charity Fund
Tatiana Lazareva, TV Presenter
Tatiana Mitkova, Editor-in-Chief, Information Broadcasting Management, NTV channel
Rita Mitrophanova, Journalist, “Maximum” Radio
Nadezhda Mikhalkova, Actress
Tatiana Mikhalkova, President, “Russkiy Siluet” Charity Fund
Albina Nazimova, Restorer
Nataya Sindeeva, Producer, “Serebryannyi Dozhd” Radio Station
Alika Smekhova, Actress
Lada Fetisova, Sportswoman, Head, Republic of Sports Fund for Children From Vulnerable Families and Disabled Orphans
Elena Khanga, Journalist
Alena Khemlnitskaya, Actress
Svetlana Khorkina, Olympic Champion, State Duma Deputy,
Evelina Khromchenko, Editor-in-Chief, “L’Officiel”
Arina Sharapova, TV Presenter, ORT Channel
Martha, Singer, Ukraine
Oxamita, Singer, Ukraine

Sergу Golovach, Photographer,
Dmitry Vishevsky, Make- up Artist,
Anton Zhelnov, Manager,
Stella Kesaeva and all staff members of Stella Art Foundation
Anna Chernyakhovskaya, UNAIDS/Russia

Dina Korzun:
I was reluctant to participate in this project as I hardly knew anything about the scale of the HIV epidemic in my country and never came across HIV in my daily life. I thought that closing my eyes to it would be the simplest thing to do. However, making an effort and searching for information was far more important. I realized that the major challenge was ignorance, and hence, intolerance.
Here is an example: An HIV positive girl had to have her tooth pulled. Naturally, she decided to disclose her HIV status to her doctor. The doctor turned her away and refused to treat her. This left her with a dilemma: to disguise her disease or to disclose her status and risk being rejected.
This kind of reaction is totally unacceptable in a civilized society, even more so because many people get infected by sheer accident. As a mother of a 17-year old son, I realize how important it is that he is aware of HIV.
The society needs to get used to information on this topic. There should be more activities and projects like this one. Our government should take the lead, not only individual activists. Our people have a lot of empathy and understanding, but HIV/AIDS is something one doesn’t talk about.”

Rita Mitrophanova:
Happiness can be defined in many different ways. Happiness is when there is peace on the Earth, when your children are healthy and your husband is faithful. Happiness is when they understand you. It is important that one tries to understand people with HIV. One needs to step out of one’s comfortable existence and think of those who feel worse than we do. By participating in this project I am challenging myself. Like many other people, I did not think of HIV/AIDS. My very first thoughts of it made me shudder, yet, I also understood that there was no way I could turn away from it. We all share a life in one shared world.

Elena Khanga:
Any time I hear of AIDS, I think of Arthur Ashe, the great American tennis player and human rights activist. He was infected with HIV during heart surgery. This can happen to anyone. That is why tolerance towards HIV positive people is important.

Maria Gaidar:
It is very important indeed that people have information on how to treat HIV positive people and on whether HIV is dangerous and on how to make sure people with HIV feel included. Indeed, it is the healthy people who are in need of tolerance and education. When society turns its back to those in trouble, it finds itself in a trap. The problem is that in Russia entire social groups such as street children, drug users, gay men, HIV positive people are either left out or left unnoticed.”

Alika Smekhova:
I find the attitude toward people living with HIV infuriating. There is no understanding and basic empathy. Being sick in our country is like being a leper, and this is a wrong attitude.
It is necessary that information be provided to people in every possible way so that they know about the disease and they know people living with HIV do not deserve to be treated as outcasts. Also, clearly, there is a need to introduce special classes in high school on safe sex and healthy lifestyles. There is also a need for full information on other risk factors, such as transmission in medical settings, for instance.

Tatiana Lazareva:
We rarely think of AIDS in our daily lives. But when it affects someone we know, it can’t but effect our feelings and make us think of how to help this person. I believe we should speak about HIV as much as possible. No matter how much information emerges, it is never enough. I believe this is my duty. If in my country I have fans who love me and listen to me, I am ready to endlessly tell them about prevention and tolerance towards HIV positive people.”

Marina Aleksandrova:
I am concerned about the growing number of newly registered HIV cases in our country. I am thinking of myself, of my future children and of all young people with whom I can speak the same language. It is very important that they be aware of safe sex. Charity is a challenge in our country. However, if one is well known or is a star, charity opens the doors to different institutions and makes it possible to talk to officials about subjects like HIV. One has to take advantage of this. In my country, they tend to be as cautious about hospices as they are about HIV-positive people. I am on the Board of Trustees of the first Moscow hospice. We do charitable performances and help people to live on and not to die. It is very important that people working in hospices get protection and support.

Lada Fetisova:
Our fund has published an information bulletin on HIV/AIDS and offered it to our partner schools so they could display it. Some principals were supportive, but a lot of them rejected it. This clearly demonstrates the level of indifference that we need to overcome. In the USA they start giving information on AIDS to children as early as when they turn eight. As children grow up, they get information on the way HIV is transmitted, and on how to avoid infection. At the same time, a powerful message reaches them: people living with HIV are no different from others. They work, they study, they love just the way everyone does. As a result, stigma and discrimination is less of an issue in the USA than in Russia. There is no way we can fight stigma and discrimination unless the cultural level of our society is improved and people become more responsible.

Diana Gurtskaya:
When I was a little girl, the most popular newspaper “Argumenty i Facty” published an article which triggered a lively debate among adults and excited a lot of interest in children. It was about Princess Diana and her visit to a hospital where she shook hands with a person living with AIDS.
"Princess Diana” sounded enigmatic and attractive. I asked them to describe what she looked like and what she was wearing. So they did, but when I asked what AIDS was about, they said that “this not what concerns good girls.”
A misperception that HIV/AIDS doesn’t concern “good girls” and that it is the lot of “bad girls” is still very common in our society. This is awful and unfair. There is no way in the XXst century one can dissociate oneself from HIV and want to isolate HIV -positive people.
Clearly, with that handshake Diana did not solve the problem; however, she set an important example. Let us also extend our hands to support those who need our help today!”

• Back to the list