??The story of?The Red Whistle Campaign began as a personal advocacy of Niccolo Cosme, a commercial photographer in the country. He was inspired by a UNAIDS representative who wore a whistle at one of the conventions he attended. The whistle, as explained to him, is used as a tool for UNAIDS to sound the alarm for disaster preparedness and prevention. This gave him an idea to do something similar with the HIV advocacies, especially after hearing about the AIDS-related deaths being reported by the Philippine National AIDS Council, where unfortunately some of whom were part of his social circle. ??Niccolo started buying red whistles from a bookstore, hooking them to a tag and began sporting them in social gatherings. People started to inquire about the accessory, which gave him the opportunity to engage them about the rising epidemic. ??Then he started to purchase more, distributing them to his friends who also shared his belief in the advocacy. Different HIV and AIDS organizations began to approach him to collaborate, and Star World helped him with providing a great number of red whistles.??The rest is history. To date, The Red Whistle has become a widespread community response to HIV and AIDS, calling on the government, institutions, and media to educate Filipinos and alleviate the spread of the epidemic.
The Red Whistle is in support of the World AIDS Campaign 2011 with the theme of “Getting to Zero:” zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination, and zero AIDS-related deaths.
As of September, there are eight reported new HIV cases in the Philippines every day, and we are one of the five countries in the whole world with continuous rising number of HIV cases.
What You Can Do Today
As of press time, a cure for HIV and AIDS is yet to be discovered. However, if we take action, we can do something to stop the spread of HIV. Here are some things that you can do to show your support for The Red Whistle: watch and share series of viral ads available on youtube.com/TheRedWhistle and theredwhistle.org, give your support to @TheRedWhistle by blogging, tweeting and sharing on Facebook facts about the rate of HIV and AIDS’ rise in the country, wear something red or get a red whistle, and use the hash tags #redwhistlealert and #zeroHIVph on Twitter.
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For more information, visit theredwhistle.org.