Visiting Thai HIV sufferer proves an inspiration
SCMP - Saturday, December 4, 2004
MARY ANN BENITEZ
An HIV-infected Thai woman left Hong Kong yesterday after spending two days appealing to people to support victims of the disease and ensure they become valuable members of the community.
Gung Jew, 38, from Chiang Mai, is the first woman with HIV to speak to local groups to mark World Aids Day.
Ms Gung - a pseudonym - was diagnosed in 1995 and has become the co-ordinator of New Hope Centre, a network of HIV sufferers and their families in five villages in the Thai province that is now the centre of the nation's Aids epidemic.
"I appeal to people in Hong Kong to accept people living with HIV/Aids. We can still work and contribute to society. People should not reject or ignore those who are infected."
She said patients "must live with confidence", adding that she was proof of an infected person living a full life with the support of family and friends.
Ms Gung was diagnosed with HIV a week after learning her husband had been infected with the virus.
She never knew how her husband was infected - he died in 1997 from a fungal infection of the brain, an Aids-related illness.
Ms Gung reminded women to practise safer sex and "if a couple really love each other to go for HIV tests".
Ms Gung works at home, earning $20 a day sewing and knitting to send her 11-year-old daughter to school.
She said she has not been sick nor taken any antiretroviral drugs since being diagnosed, instead eating well and living healthily.
She said her daughter and her volunteer work kept her going.
"I had a chance to work with an abandoned family until they passed away. I helped with the funerals and worked till I was accepted by the people in the community," she told a meeting at St John's Cathedral on Thursday night.
Elijah Fung, manager of the church's HIV Education Centre, said: "Ms Gung can be an inspiration to others by showing that even if they are infected, it does not mean there is no hope."
Ms Gung's trip, her first overseas, was hosted by the centre and the Christian Conference of Asia.
"People should not reject or ignore those who are infected," says Gung Jew. Picture by Antony Dickson
posted by cbs at Monday, December 06, 2004
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