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New
Year, New Needs, It is with great delight that we started the New Year listening to the voices of 3 courageous service user stars that braved an open meeting to share their thoughts and feelings of their lives and their needs for HIV services in the year 2000. I would like to send my enormous thanks to them. All three have never spoken at a public meeting like that before and I drew inspiration from the strength in each individual story told. (You know who you are!) We take strength in the stories we have heard to face the challenges of HIV in this new Millennium. The old saying of “Unity is Strength” applies to any process where people with HIV come together to form a collective voice. Only then will the uniqueness and strength of Staffordshire Buddies begin to show the ‘big-old-sometimes-bigoted-world-out-there’ that people with HIV are a force to be reckoned with. I want and will see a more confident organisation, that takes pride in telling some of its successes and stories of the folk who use its services; gay, straight, bisexual, children, carers or partners. All have a voice and the title of this magazine is “the voice of people living with HIV”. I am pleased to see that Dennis has written some words for this edition, let’s have more of it ! Remember, knowledge/experience is power and if we do not share it, both inside and outside Buddies, it can become a weapon that can be used against us. So speak up, ask for support (if you need it) and tell your stories. The world will be a better place for it. Janine
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