Know any good jokes? Mansfield Place-based charity Waverley Care want to hear them.
They've launched a new social-media campaign – #laffoffstigma – which uses humour to raise awareness of far-from-funny HIV stigma. It includes a joke competition, with £100 in Amazon vouchers for the winner.
Just visit www.laffoffstigma.com and either tweet a joke adding the tag #laff11 or click the 'Enter on Facebook' button to login with your Facebook, Hotmail or Yahoo account and add your joke in the comment box.
You can also post visual jokes at www.youtube.com/laffoffstigma.
The winner will be judged at the end of August by Ryan Taylor, comedy programmer at the Pleasance.
'Using humour to tackle a serious subject is a great way of raising awareness,' writes Taylor, 'and I’m hoping that Fringe-goers will be creative, imaginative and prolific in sending in their gags.
'Stigma has a devastating impact on the lives of people living with HIV,' says Waverley Care's Jane Griffin. 'People feel unable to talk about their HIV status because of the fear of being bullied or victimised in some way. No wonder so many people simply choose to keep their HIV a secret, even from their closest friends and sometimes, even, from their own family.
'We hope the laffoffstigma campaign will encourage people to challenge HIV stigma wherever they come across it, and take a step towards a world where people living with HIV can speak openly about their condition, without the fear of being judged; where people understand the risks and make informed choices; where the letters HIV don’t generate fear.'
Two other ways you can help:
- Add #laff11 to all your tweets
- Visit the Pleasance courtyard and fill the volunteer fundraisers' buckets with cash.