National Candlelight Memorial – AMMEF Mexico

Name of the activity: National Candlelight Memorial

Country/NMO: AMMEF Mexico

Program: HIV, AIDS and other STIs

Contact information: contact [email protected] to get in touch with the Activity Coordinator

Type of the activity: Continuous Activity

Category: Campaign

Focus area: Removing stigmatization and empowering people living with HIV

Sustainable Development Goals addressed: SDG 3 (Good health and Well-Being)

Problem statement:

In Mexico, people living with HIV are still stigmatized, and discriminated just because their serological condition. About 63% of mexican population believes this infection is bounded to Men who have Sex with Men (MSM), transgender women and people who performs sex work. On the other hand, living with HIV is also consider as synonym of death, and around this is focus the importance of inform general population in order to reduce stigma.

Target groups:

• General population

Beneficiaries:

• General population
• Medical students
• People living with HIV.

Objectives:

• To promote the inclusion of people living with HIV/AIDS by commemorating World AIDS Day (WAD) through a 2 weeks campaign making a visible monument using candlelight’s for those who died by the HIV infection or AIDS.
• To attack misinformation about people living with HIV by intervening general population in public spaces attracted by a candlelight monument using one to one myth busting activities. 
• To open discussion among general population about facts related to people living with HIV and the challenges they usually face trying to lead a life free from discrimination. 

Indicators of Success:

• At least 20 local Candlelight Memorials are conducted.
• At least 150 persons were approached and informed by the conduction of the Candlelight memorials.
• At least 80% of the Candlelight memorials report interaction between organizers and approached people during the conduction of the Candlelight memorials.

Methodology:

This campaign is going to be hold by Local Officers in the NMO, who will be performing Candlelight memorials in their local environments. The coordination of all the officers will be given by the national officer (NORA) and his national team, and they will be requested to implement the candlelight memorials from December 4th to December 20th. After that time, they will report all the statistical information in a national report form for this activity and they will send their photographical evidences of the activity

Plans for evaluation:

All the evaluation plans are related to our national activities report form. In this form, all the implementations will be conglomerate and the officers are going to be questioned about general statistical information related to our indicators of success (Number of implementations, number of attendees, assessments, etc). After the report process, the national team will get together all the information and will produce the statistical analysis.

External collaborations:

No, only related to LORA’s and SCORA general members.