An e-mail message from a hiv patient from The Philippines

An E-mail message from The Philippines

Good day sir or ma'am,

I am a Buddhist monk from the Philippines, and I have HIV.  My preceptor has requested that I attend the International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University in Yangon and I'm currently seeking information on HIV treatment and awareness in the country.

I've read the posts made a couple of years ago regarding the HIV situation in the country (that is where I found your email address), and I must say that I'm a little afraid to trust the system there to provide me with ARV treatments and the necessary regular checkups and lab tests.  And for a monk, travel to/from the Philippines every 3 months would be very difficult as this is a Catholic country and there are very few Buddhist devotees to help. 

Can you give me an update on the situation there?  Or perhaps some online resources where I can research this concern for myself? 

I hope to hear from you soon.  May you have a blessed day and may you always be well and happy!

Thank you for your reply. Monks aren't supposed to admit this, but I am a little afraid to spend too much time out of the Philippines because of the situation you described in Myanmar.  It breaks my heart that too many people are going without treatment for so many reasons, and it seems to me that this situation is going unnoticed by the global community.  This troubles me.

As for my own situation here, I am covered under the national health insurance plan which covers my necessary checkups and ARVs.  Perhaps it would be in my best interest to find a devotee here who would be willing to mail my ARVs to me?

It seems that I have many questions, yet I don't wish to take up too much of your time.  Please feel free to post my emails to your blog.  I am actually an HIV activist (as well as a monk) and I live publicly with HIV.  You may even post my email address if you wish.

One last silly question: Do you know other HIV+ monks?

Thank you so much for your help.  I wish blessings, health and happiness to you and your family.

Reply to the message from The Philippines

The global community knows the problems in Myanmar.  Many people post in Youtube website.  The Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi even ask for the help to global community.  There is Global fund, 3D fund in Myanmar.  These are like NGOs to distribute ARV medications in Myanmar, but supply for the medication is just a bit compare to the amount of people who need this medication.  If you read my blogspot, you will understand more.  After you read one page, you can click on "older post" then read the next page.  Click again at "older post" which you can see at the bottom of that page and read the next page and so on.  Some posts are written in Burmese, but many posts are written in English.  Our posts contain the problems in Myanmar, in Thailand, in Cambodia, in the Philippines, etc.

I don't know any HIV positive monk personally, but it is possible for a monk to have HIV too of course.  In Myanmar, people are not open type or they keep it as a secret because they fear that people may ignore them or boycott them. 

Since you allow me, I am going to post your message there in our blog post www.hiv-patient-asks-for-help.blogspot.com  Interested devotee may contact you directly or via through us.  Frankly speaking, we post this blog post a few months ago, but we still don't have any donor.  As soon as we get any donor, we announce in our blog post.

We are free.  We are willing to help you so please do not hesitate to ask us.  Please feel free.  We do have some hiv people too so that we understand each other very well, sympathize each other, exchange knowledge to each other, etc.