A CARIBBEAN based HIV and AIDS campaign group was honoured recently with a nomination at The One World Media Awards in London.
Barbados’ Live UP:Love.Protect.Respect project, which is in conjunction with the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership’s [CBMP] campaign on HIV/AIDs, were up for the ‘Special Award’ at the prestigious annual ceremony.
CBMP partnered with Olympic winning Caribbean athletes Veronica Campbell-Brown, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and Yohan Blake, who helped to promote their LIVE UP campaign using the Love. Protect. Respect slogan.
CBMP executive Director, Dr Allyson Leacock, said: “This [nomination] means that our work was able to be noticed by a global audience. HIV has no look and it doesn’t discriminate between colour, class or creed.”
“It’s prevalence has made the Caribbean the second highest region in the world after sub-Saharan Africa. That is not a distinction of which we should be proud. We need to look at ourselves and reflect on many of our constructs of masculinity and femininity. Is it really smart to have multiple partners and engage in unprotected sex when you know the risk?”
Leacock added: “We are delighted that our LIVE UP campaign was one of the three finalists after making to the shortlist. It was clear as Jon Snow said that the standard of entries was very high so we feel honoured to have caught the attention of the judging panel. This means that our work was able to be noticed by a global audience. That we were the only Caribbean entry and made it to the top three was even more rewarding. We hope to use this as a further inspiration to continue our work in the region to make a positive difference in the response to HIV in the Caribbean”. (PR)
