Online Memorial Quilt of Remembrance Launched

An original online project dedicated to the memory of people who were victims of AIDS and activists who devoted their lives to combating the epidemic of HIV/AIDS was launched.
 
On the 21st of May, 2017 on International AIDS Memorial Day, as part of the preparations for the VI HIV/AIDS Conference in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, an AIDS Quilt Online, an original online project, was launched. The quilt is dedicated to the memory of people who were victims of AIDS and activists who devoted their lives to combating the epidemic.
 
This year is the 30 year anniversary of the international NAMES Project Foundation, whose founder, San Francisco resident Cleve Jones, sewed the first canvas quilt in memory of a friend who fell victim to AIDS, thus overcoming the bitterness of loss. Soon after this initiative was taken up across America and then across the world. This is how the AIDS Memorial Quilt was born. Sewn from many pieces, each of which symbolizes someone’s interrupted fate, the quilt has become one of the main symbols of the fight against AIDS. Tens of thousands of memorial canvasses have been created by friends and family members of those who have passed.
 
The online memorial quilt continues this tradition. Anyone who desires can create a square dedicated to a loved one with the help of an online quilt constructor. The quilt can include a short dedication. The squares uploaded by project participants will all be collected to create one big electronic quilt.
 
Since its inception, around 36 million people across the world have died from the disease that has been named AIDS. In 1996, antiretroviral therapy appeared and HIV moved from the list of deadly diseases to that of chronic diseases. If one learns of one’s diagnosis and starts to take treatment on time, one can live as long as a person without HIV. Nonetheles, for various reasons, each year the disease continues to take hundreds of lives of men, women, and children. HIV does not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, sexual orientation, or religious affiliation. This problem can affect anyone, even those who are sure that it will never affect them.
 
Project partners: The project is a collaboration among UNAIDS, The Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor), The SPID Infosvyaz Foundation, the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPCru), NP E.V.A., The Russian National Network of PLWH, the East Europe and Central Asia Union of PLWH (ECUO), The Steps Fund, Teenergizer!, the Kazakhstan Union of PLWH, the Parni Plus project, HIV.LV, The Deti+ Charity, and the Svetlana Izambaeva Charity.