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7/27/2019 "Face to Face with Drugs" exhibition brief June 2011
1/1
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