7/27/2019 "Face to Face with Drugs" exhibition brief June 2011

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Spotlight storywww.pactworld.org/cs/vietnam

Photos reveal drug users untold storiesHANOI, June 20, 2011 Vietnams rst photo exhibition on the private lives o drug users,Face-to-Face with Drugs, launched today during Drug Control Month. Te Center or

Supporting Community Development Initiatives (SCDI) and omorrow Media organizedthe event with PEPFAR unding and technical assistance rom Pact, under USAID.

Photographer Pham Hoai Tanh worked or a year with 50 people who have overcome orstill use drugs in provinces across Vietnam, to create an exhibit that recounts our periodsin his subjects lives: exposure to illegal substances, struggles with addiction, nding a wayout, and giving back to society. Teir stories stress the need or support rom loved ones androm community organizations such as sel-help groups, which ensure access to servicesincluding behavior-change outreach, methadone treatment and empathetic counseling.

Te launch let people who have used drugs share the stage with Le Duc Hien, DeputyDirector o the Department o Social Evils, who reiterated ocial plans to ease punishmento drug use. SCDI hopes the event will help reduce stigma and discrimination, whilereminding drug users they are not alone in the ght against the negative efects o drugs.

VIETNAMESEAND AMERICANS

INPARTNERSHIPTOFIGHTHIV/AIDS

Media darlings:

Reporters focked to hear the

subjects o the exhibition, who

attended rom across Vietnam.

Pham Thi Minh, head o Coming

Home Coalition, a Hanoi

community group that receives

Pact support through CARE,

closed by saying: I want the

community to see us. We can be

healthy. We can be beautiul.

Dang Tran

Khanh, in one of

the exhibitionsmore than 100

photos:

My ather bought

this plastic-coated

chain to prevent

abrasions. It used to

be or chaining me.

Now my dad and

I use it lock up the

motorbike, to keep

it rom getting

stolen at lunch.

When asked what story moved him

most in the exhibit, photographer Pham

Hoai Thanh (top) said he wished only

that one other subject could be present:

A 19-year-old named Bi, who risks arrest

i he travels with heroin. Bi eatured in

Pacts spotlight story or August 2010.

USAID Mission Director Francis

Donovan asks the subjects to sign his

photo book. Donovan choked back

tears as he shared his conviction that

taking part in the exhibition had made

each o them an outreach worker o

the most powerul kind.PhamH

oaiThanh/SCDI/TomorrowMedia

Nathan Wilkinson/Pact

Nath

anWilkinson/Pact

RichardN

yberg/USAID

Hanoi

http://www.pactworld.org/galleries/default-file/Pact_Vietnam_201008_Street_youth_forum.pdfhttp://www.pactworld.org/galleries/default-file/Pact_Vietnam_201008_Street_youth_forum.pdf