Long Life: Positive Stories

This book shares the writing, illustrations (body maps), photographs, artwork and storyboards of a group of 13 HIV positive women from Khayelitsha, a Western Cape township in South Africa.

The women were part of a support group programme with clinical psychologist, Jonathan Morgan, Kylie Thomas, Jane Solomon and Kali van der Merwe, while participating in an anti-retroviral treatment at the offices of Médécins Sans Frontières, Khayelitsha. The women describe in their own voices how their lives have been transformed by antiretroviral treatment. They talk about their lives, relationships, children (both HIV positive and negative), and life experiences as women of South Africa, affected by apartheid, poverty and abuse. Their stories tell how their lives have been changed by anti-retroviral treatment, giving them improved health, hope, voices and sometimes employment.

The participants express how through their anti-retroviral treatment, they have recovered their health and created new meaning for their own lives and their children's' lives. According to the publishers, "This publication refutes the argument that poor people are unable to comply with the sometimes demanding ARV regimens."

According to the publishers, "[This] is a beautiful art book, a striking advocacy document, a rich ethnographic text, a graphical novel, a series of photo essays, and a history of the Treatment action Campaign and of the work Médécins Sans Frontières in South Africa."

One of the participants writes, "[W]e want to let people know that we positive people are getting a treatment to help us live longer. We want to tell the whole world that we are many and we are working, we are healthy. Also we want our stories to be published to the other countries. For those who are positive not to lose hope maybe someday we will get its cure. We want people outside to know that it is not the end of the world, you can live as many years as you want."

Click here to order the book from the Australian publisher.