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Vietnamese HIV+ Families

Each of these four films is different in form and length. Together these films reflect dramatic changes in the daily lives of families living with HIV in Vietnam between 2004 and 2013.

 

Before 2004 very few AIDS medicines were available. Women did not access AIDS medicines due to stigma and shame and. We started the Sunflower support group in Hanoi with four HIV-positive women and local service providers in late 2003 to improve access. Members did not want to show their faces, but they told their story in a radio program.

 

These stories inspired the fiction film “Why there is no moon during the daytime”.

 

Since 2004 subsidized AIDS medicines quickly entered the country. Two years later when women had managed to pick up their lives again, Sunflower members made a TV commercial “Phuongs Story” and the documentary Two Sunflowers.

 

By 2008 it was clear that the partners of the women did access treatment due to their addiction and intravenous drug use. This motivated us to make With or Without Me focusing on male perspectives on HIV, drugs, love and families.

 

For 11 years I combined HIV program management with academic research and visual and performance-based arts to improve access to treatment and care for HIV positive mothers and their children. This allowed me to follow some individual women and their families for almost a decade.   

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Publications:

  • Oosterhoff, P., Lyttleton, C., van der Kwaak, A., and Aggleton, P. (2013) ‘Editorial Introduction’ in Special Issue: Sexual and reproductive health issues among indigenous and minority ethnic peoples in Asia, Africa and Latin America, Culture, Health and Sexuality, Culture, Health & Sexuality, 15:sup3, S335-S337, DOI: 10.1080/13691058.2013.807076

  • White, J. and Oosterhoff, P. (2013) Monstrous Fears: experiences of pregnancy and opiate use in Vietnam, and strategies for support in Journal of Drug Issues, 43: 1, 4 – 19

  • Bach Xuan Tran, Ohinmaa A., Long Thanh Nguyen, Oosterhoff P., Tam Van Vu, Larsson M. (2012) Gender differences in quality of life outcomes of HIV/AIDS treatment in the latent feminization of HIV epidemics in Vietnam. AIDS Care, Vol. 24, Issue 10 (Taylor & Francis.

  • Oosterhoff P., White J. and Aggleton P. (editors) (2011) Special Issue: Sexual and Reproductive Health Issues among Minority Ethnic Groups in South-East Asia and South-West China, Culture, Health and Sexuality. November Issue.

  • White J., Oosterhoff P., and Nguyen Thi Huong (2011) Deconstructing 'Barriers' to Access: Minority Ethnic Women and Medicalised Maternal Health Services in Vietnam. Global Public Health (accepted for print January 2012)

  • Oosterhoff P., White J., and Nguyen Thi Huong, (2011) Engaging HIV positive ethnic minority mothers in Vietnam Exchange – Autumn, Royal Tropical Institute, Netherlands

  • Oosterhoff P. and Tran Xuan Bach (2011) Effects of collective action on the confidence of individual HIV positive mothers in Vietnam. In: Women, Motherhood and Living with HIV/AIDS: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (available in 2013). Editor: Pranee Liamputtong Springer.

  • Oosterhoff P., White J., Nguyen Thi Huong (2011) Family health consequences of modernisation programmes in Black Thai communities.  Culture Health and Sexuality. December Issue

  • Nguyen Thi Huong, Oosterhoff P., White J. (2011) Aspirations and realities of love, marriage and education among Hmong women. Culture, Health and Sexuality. December Issue

  • White, J.; Oosterhoff, P. and Anh Thu Vuong (2010) Opiate Use and Pregnancy in Hanoi: Findings of an Assessment, Medical Committee Netherlands Vietnam (MCNV)

  • Oosterhoff, P. (2009) Observations on action research with HIV-positive women and state service providers in northern Vietnam.  Medische Antropologie 21 (2).

  • Hardon, A., Oosterhoff, P., Nguyen, T., Hidayana, I. and Imelda, D. (2009) Preventing mother to child transmission of HIV in Vietnam and Indonesia: diverging care dynamics and fragmented practices.   Social Science and Medicine, 69 (6): 838-45.

  • Nguyen T.A., Oosterhoff P., Pham N. Y., Wright P, and Hardon A. (2009) Health workers' views on quality of prevention of mother-to-child transmission and postnatal care for HIV-infected women and their children. Human Resources for Health, 7:39 

  • Oosterhoff P., Nguyen T. A., Pham N. Y., Wright P., and Hardon A. (2009) Recreating kinship: coping options of HIV+ AIDS widows in Vietnam.  in: Health Care for Women International.

  • Nguyen T.A., Oosterhoff P., Pham N. Y., Wright P, and Hardon A. (2009) Self-Help Groups Can Improve Utilization of Postnatal Care by HIV-Infected Mothers.  Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, Vol. 20, No. 2, March/April 2009, 141-152.

  • Oosterhoff, P. (2009) UNDP Social and political science specialist on socio-economic impacts of HIV and AIDS, Vietnam: UNDP

  • Oosterhoff P. (2008) “Pressure to Bear” Gender, Fertility and Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV in Vietnam, PhD thesis

  • Oosterhoff P., Nguyen T. A., Pham N. Y., Wright P., and Hardon A. (2008) HIV-positive mothers in Viet Nam: using their status to build support groups and access essential services. Reproductive Health Matters, November issue

  • Oosterhoff P., Hardon A., Nguyen T. A., Pham N. Y., and Wright P. (2008) Dealing with a positive result: risks and responses in routine HIV testing among pregnant women in Vietnam. AIDS care, 2008, 20:6, 654-659

  • Oosterhoff P., Nguyen T. A., Ngo T. H., Pham N. Y., Wright P. and Hardon A. (2008) Holding the line: Vietnamese family responses to pregnancy and child desire when a family member has HIV.  In Culture Health and Sexuality, Volume 10, Issue 4, Pages 403 – 416.

  • Nguyen T.A., Oosterhoff P., Hardon A., Nguyen H. T., Coutinho R. A, and Wright P. (2008) Barriers to access prevention of mother-to-child transmission for HIV positive women in a well-resourced setting in Vietnam.  AIDS Research and Therapy, 5:7, doi:10.1186/1742-6405-5-7

  • Oosterhoff P., Nguyen T. A., Pham N. Y., Wright P. and Hardon A. (2008) Can micro-credit empower HIV+ women? An exploratory case study in Northern Vietnam.  Women’s Health and Urban Life, Vol.7, Issue 1.

  • Nguyen T.A., Oosterhoff P., Hardon A., Nguyen H. T., Coutinho R. A. and Wright P. (2008) A hidden HIV epidemic among women in Vietnam. BMC Public Health, January Issue, 8:37  

  • Oosterhoff, P.; Peeters, A.; Honderdos, I.; Pham, N. Y. and Bowen, R. (2007) Psycho-social support for women affected by HIV/AIDS: a handbook for communication skills training, Medical Committee Netherlands Vietnam, Vietnam Women’s Union

  • Pham, T. T. H.; Nguyen, T. A. and Oosterhoff, P. (2007) “Muoi Thuc Don, Danh cho Nguoi Mac Benh Nhiem Trung” (Vietnamese cookbook for families living with HIV), Hanoi Medical Publishing House

  • Oosterhoff, P.; Miller, N. and Tran Viet Anh (2007) Hanoi B93 Clubs Evaluation, Hanoi: Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (DOLISA) and MCNV

  • Oosterhoff, P. and Pham, T.T.H. (2005) Theory made palatable: Cooking lessons for HIV+ women in Vietnam, Nutrition 1: September.

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