From left: Dr Allison Leacock, executive director, Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership, Howard Hamilton, chairman National AIDS Committee; Conroy Wilson, executive producer of 'Red Ribbon Diaries' and executive/creative director of ASHE, and Miriam Maluwa, country representative for Jamaica, The Bahamas and Belize, and senior adviser, law and human rights - Caribbean Region, UNAIDS, speaking at the pilot of 'Red Ribbon Diaries' at the Palace Cineplex Sovereign Centre on Thursday. - Contributed

"The AIDS epidemic is not over in any part of the world," said Miriam Maluwa, senior adviser, law and human rights, Caribbean region, UNAIDS. Maluwa was speaking at the screening of the television pilot programme, Red Ribbon Diaries, at the Place Cineplex in Sovereign Centre, Liguanea on Thursday.

The series journals the lives of average Jamaicans and confronts HIV-related myths, cultural behaviours and HIV-related stigma and discrimination in Jamaica. The pilot was produced by ASHE with financial and technical support from UNAIDS.

Written and directed by Michael Holgate, ASHE's artistic director, the series is intended to put the issue of HIV/AIDS in the homes of ordinary Jamaicans. Maluwa notes that the programme was timely, as after 25 years of first being discovered, the virus continues to thrive.

Statistically, in 2007, 33 million people globally were living with the disease. In the Caribbean, there are 230,000 persons living with AIDS, Jamaica contributing 27,000 to that total, 65 per cent of whom do not know that they are infected.

Maluwa spoke to the various social and cultural factors that prevent persons from getting tested, all related to the fear of stigma and discrimination.

Media role

General manager of Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation, Dr Allison Leacock, said that the media have a vital role to play in curtailing the spread of HIV/AIDS and the discrimination associated with it. She said that Caribbean media must consciously look for programmes that uplift our people as they can be a powerful catalyst for change.

Intertwined in the storyline of Red Ribbon Diaries, are stories of prostitution, infidelity, early initiation of sex and the social and cultural reaction to the disease.

For the pilot to be successful, partnership and financial support from all areas of society across the Caribbean is being sought to help combat the prevalence of the disease.