Cristina Índio do Brasil
Repórter - Agência Brasil

Rio – The Ministry of Health and Unesco have just announced they intend to provide some US$ 600,000 to people who are HIV positive for legal expenses. According to the Technical Director of Brazil's HIV/AIDS Program, Eduardo Barbosa, such assistance has been available since 2002 because people with AIDS face problems with discrimination and prejudice even when seeking guaranteed rights, such as access to their Worker Compulsory Savings Funds (FGTS).

Barbosa reports that most of the HIV positive people who seek legal aid are poor and live in remote, distant perimeter areas of urban centers. "Most of the problems they have are precisely labor problems. There is still a lot of discrimination in this area," he says. "Another difficulty is family prejudice. Some of these people get kicked out of their homes."

For many HIV positive people the situation has been alleviated by the activities of ONGs, says Barbosa. "Our challenge is to get information to the agencies that deal with these people," he concludes.

Translation: Allen Bennett