Pham Thi Hue
Making Her Voice Heard
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| LAM DUC HIEN / EDITING FOR TIME |
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By Phil Zabriskie
Posted Monday, October 4, 2004; 21:00 HKT
Like a growing number of young women in Vietnam's northern port city of Haiphong, Pham Thi Hue was infected with HIV by her husband, one of the town's many drug addicts. But instead of being shamed into silence, as Vietnamese with HIV and AIDS customarily are, the 25-year-old tailor and mother of one went public, appearing on television and at conferences. Her business suffered and her neighbors insulted her, but Hue has now become the public face of Mothers and Wives, an HIV/AIDS support group established in Haiphong by a Norwegian nongovernmental organization and her neighborhood's People's Committee. Last year, she founded a smaller, unaffiliated group named after a local flower—the name translates roughly to Haiphong Red Flamboyant. People who need advice on treatment or help preparing bodies for burial can dial a hot line and get assistance from able and empathetic HIV victims. "We gather to support each other," Hue says. "When we are sick, what we need most is encouragement and comfort from people who understand our situation and are willing to share our happiness, as well as our sadness."
On a hot and humid night last month, Hue welcomed into her small home a rail-thin woman, also a tailor, who was HIV positive and a fellow member of the Red Flamboyant micronetwork. The woman tearfully told Hue that she had not notified anyone about her condition, fearing that she would lose customers and that her daughter would be ridiculed at school. The pig-tailed Hue, girlish and giggling in moments of levity, became the wise elder, offering medical and personal counsel—making herself seen and heard so others will not be invisible.
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