This blog post shares Monte’s experience as part of a Digital Storytelling project led by the United Voices of HIV Alberta. The project was supported by REACH Nexus through the Positive Actions initiative, which aims to reduce HIV stigma by empowering local teams across Canada to develop and lead community-driven stigma reduction projects. To learn more about Positive Actions, click here.

“Family mattered to me and so did creativity. I liked caring for people. There was a reason for me to be here.”

My name is Monte and I grew up in a close-knit rural community in central Alberta, attended college in Red Deer, university in Winnipeg, and spent most of my adult life living in Vancouver.

These days, I split my time between Lethbridge and Vancouver so I can be closer to family while at the same time maintain friendships. I’m a curious and creative person who likes to explore new ideas and approaches.

The United Voices of HIV Alberta’s digital story telling project felt like a great opportunity to meet others in Alberta who are living with HIV. I was drawn to the project because digital storytelling offers a powerful way to explore and share personal or universal messages.

Stories told this way can reach a broad audience and encourage both sympathy and empathy– important parts of human connection. Sympathy, though, should never be confused with pity.

On a personal level, my story is a reminder of my own values, principles, and strategies that I use to navigate challenging times. Beyond that, my story is one small part of larger efforts to build, maintain, or renew understanding of HIV and stigma.

Creating my digital story helped me come to terms with the fact that it’s okay not to fully accept living with HIV. I feel it’s all about doing the best that we can, and that almost everyone faces some kind of inner struggle.

Through my story, I hope that other people living with HIV take the time to explore their own experiences of stigma. In a way, it’s about creating a relationship with the stigma and understanding it more clearly so that it becomes easier to figure out ways to push back against its negative impact.

This is my story: