What are you doing for love positive women 2017? Mark your calendars

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Love Positive Women 2017

February is a very special month for women living with HIV as it marks ICW’s annual Love Positive Women: Romance Starts at Home campaign (LPW). The two weeks of festivities lasts from February 1st – 14th. What are you planning to do for LPW 2017?

In 2016, LPW exploded with over 107 LPW events/activities by over 70 different partners with an estimated 3231 individuals directly involved in activities excluding those reached by social and traditional media or not reported. By the end of February 2016, there were 439 new ‘likes’ on the LPW Facebook page. A consistent increase for the last 4 years. The LPW Facebook page is the main site where organizations post their activities, photos and messages for the world to see.

The increased engagement created both a social media and traditional media frenzy. ICW and our partners were able to use these platforms to talk about issues that were important to women living with HIV but to also highlight the importance of visibility and self care for women living with HIV. In total there were at least 13 media outlets that did pieces featuring LPW, including radio, print and television. Given this media buzz paired with endorsement and participation from partners such as World Health Organization, International AIDS Society, the Canadian HIV Legal Network and the POZ Magazine, it is almost impossible to capture the actual number of people that LPW was able to reach in 2016 alone—potentially upwards of 500,000.

LPW is open to all women living with HIV and friends to host events or send gestures of love to support women living with HIV. These can be anything from sending a card; organizing a dance party; getting women together for a makeover day; or taking your best friend out for dinner. Check out the many examples on the LPW Facebook page.

Of course, many of the activities you do can be without a cost or built into your already existing programing (for example a special workshop or webinar focused on women living with HIV or having your staff pose or just a photo of yourself declaring your love).

We are starting to compile a list of activities and partners from around the world. Send an email by January 20th to [email protected] to get your LPW activity in our LPW press release with all the other great ones such as the annual Visual AIDS, Fire Island Artist Residency and Dieu Donne card making workshop and global mail out in NYC and quilt making with JCW+ in Jamaica.

Looking forward to celebrating all the most amazing women in 2017!