#AIDSMemoryUK Campaign
The Establishment of a National Tribute to HIV and AIDS in the U.K.
In the 1980/90s, HIV/AIDS disproportionally affected four marginalised groups: gay/ bisexual men; African communities; haemophiliacs and injecting drug users.
Yet it influenced the whole nation, challenging deep rooted prejudices by confronting issues about equality, difference, religion and of our collective identity, which questioned our values as a nation.
HIV/AIDS has had a profound impact on society, both as an illness and as a source of discrimination and solidarity. International
London is the chosen city as it was hit hardest in the UK; many people sought support in the capital from all over the UK and the world.
The Memorial will:
• Recollect memories and recall remembrance to pay tribute to more than 21,000 people who died in the UK and the 35 million who have died worldwide;
• Bridge history and narrative between communities and generations by considering AIDS in the 20th Century and the progress towards HIV undetectable in the 21st;
• Acknowledge an increasingly forgotten period in British history and the lessons we learnt from that time;
• Form a linear historical path between the past, the present and the future for all the communities in the UK who bore the brunt of the epidemic.
• Explore the psychosocial causes of the UK epidemic and the psychological effects.
• Renew awareness of HIV/AIDS and probably perform a preventative function and encourage testing in the long term by challenging the ongoing stigmatisation of more than 104,000 people living with HIV in the UK and 37 million worldwide.
• Remember that AIDS is not over and that 53% of people living with HIV world-wide cannot access life-saving medication.
• Recognise the critical role of the UK government, civil society and other actors in the Global HIV response from the start of the epidemic to now.