Landmark programme to tell stories from Aids pandemic

The National HIV Story Trust has been awarded £240,188 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to deliver a touring roadshow of stories about the history of the Aids pandemic.

The National HIV Story Trust (NHST) has established the largest filmed community archive of stories of those affected by the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s and 1990s that will now be shared across the UK as an educational and outreach programme titled "HIVstory".

The project aims to raise awareness of the Aids pandemic and generate positive social change, particularly among younger generations who may have little or no knowledge of this period of history.

This first-of-its-kind project is a three-year educational national outreach programme, which comprises live and virtual events that will give access to heritage and history, inform participants about the NHST, open up discussion and increase awareness of current issues around HIV.

Events will include history-led in-person talks and touring pop-up exhibitions in venues including foyers, community halls, day centres, libraries and other community settings. NHST will also work with a selection of partners to host film screenings, creative workshops, conferences and heritage focused educational events.

The programme will also offer skills to local communities with the opportunity for three young persons to start an apprenticeship in the heritage sector.

An online space for people across the UK to access and interact with the unique archive will also be created to reach the widest possible group of participants.

To deliver the programme, the NHST is partnering with the Royal College of Nursing, the London Archives (previously known as London Metropolitan Archive) and Newcastle University.

Paul Coleman, co-founder of the National HIV Story Trust, said: “Having created and preserved a significant filmed archive of first-person filmed testimony from people affected by the Aids pandemic, we can now roll out these stories across the UK to enrich the lives of so many people by educating, empowering, and sharing our skills with local groups and institutions.

“Importantly, it will help to preserve this rich and extraordinary history, and honour the lives of so many people who were lost to the pandemic, others who live with HIV today, and those who continue to show their unstinting support within the HIV sector.”