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What is A Girl Like Me?
A Girl Like Me
(AGLM) is a pilot program of The Well Project with initial funding
provided by the YWCA. It is an online “blog” where women of all ages can
share their stories and promote understanding of HIV through online
storytelling. There are literally millions of women around the globe who are
living with HIV and AIDS, yet many feel they are alone in their disease and
isolated in the experiences they go through each day. The goals of AGLM are
to help normalize HIV and AIDS in women and girls, and to create a space for
women living with HIV from around the world to speak out and share their
experience of what it is to live life with HIV.
Click below to view the introductory posts
from some of our bloggers:
- Mano
(aka Sharon), a 29 year old mom of 2 boys from Durban, South
Africa
- Jae
Martin, a 39 year old mom of 3, HIV+ for 18 years who lives in
Southern California
- Dikeledi
Mahlangu, a 25 year old single mom who lives in Johannesburg, South
Africa
- Katie,
a 29 year old mom, who discovered she and her husband were both HIV+ when
she was pregnant with her first child (who is HIV-negative)
- Waheedah
Shabazz-El, a 56 year old Muslim mother and activist who lives
in Philadelphia and is a founding member of the Positive Women's Network
- Dawn
Averitt Bridge, a 40 year old mom of 2 girls, the Founder of The
Well Project and long time advocate for HIV+ women. What is a blog?
A blog is an online journal or diary where individuals regularly
post their thoughts and comments on events and experiences. Some blogs
include several individuals who post under one website, such as AGLM.
Readers can leave comments on the posts, which is an important part of
many blogs. Bloggers (the individuals contributing to a blog) can also
post images or links to other Web pages that are related to the topic.
AGLM utilizes social networking sites (such as Facebook
and Twitter)
to enhance traffic of a national and global audience.
How can you be a part of A Girl Like Me?
If you are a woman living with HIV and interested in participating
in the pilot phase of AGLM, please send an email to update@thewellproject.org
that includes the following:
- Brief
biography (200 words or less)
- Sample
first blog (100+ words)
- 2-3
sentences explaining why you would like to be a part of "A Girl
Like Me"
What's in it for you?
If you are interested in contributing to AGLM, you will become a voice for
women around the world and will likely help thousands of others by sharing
your story. The Well Project will provide the website and platform for you to
participate in this online community, and will also provide support in
setting up your account to link to the blog. The Well Project also hopes to
provide online and/or in-person training focused on storytelling and media in
the future.
If you are selected, what will be
expected of you?
If you are selected, we will send you an agreement to review and sign for
your participation. You will be asked to contribute a brief blog (blog
entries are often 200-400 words or even less) every 2-3 weeks for a period of
approximately 6 months (or longer if you so choose). If you receive numerous
comments to your blogs by readers, we ask that you also periodically check in
and post responses if necessary. The blogs will be monitored and we will not
allow any content that is offensive or graphically inappropriate to readers.
The Well Project will also offer copyediting support for grammar/spelling
if you so choose.
What are the technical requirements?
All you need is an internet connection and an email address. We will work
with you to create a username and account, as well as connect you to the
AGLM blog. After set-up is complete, you can you can simply email your blogs
to The Well Project to post.
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