Mayor of Portmore George Lee gives this special little girl a hug after receiving his letter recently. - Contributed

Mayor George Lee

Portmore Municipal Council

Shop 82

Portmore Pines Plaza

Portmore, St. Catherine

November 10, 2007

Dear Mayor Lee,

I am a 12-year-old girl whose mother has been living with HIV for more than five years now. When I first heard that she had HIV I cried, because I thought that she was going to die. When she was sick and in bed it made me cry and I was very scared.

As a resident of Portmore, I don't think enough is being done by local government to educate people about HIV. I would really like to see more programmes happening in Portmore through your office. There are lots of people in Portmore who need to know more about HIV.

Death threats

Mayor Lee, I'm very scared for all the adults and children who are living with the virus in this area. There is a lot of discrimination in the different communities. I know of two kids who were forced to leave the community they lived in just because one of them was positive and their parents died as a result of AIDS. The community people threatened to kill them if they stayed. When I see these things happening it makes me want to cry, because I know this could happen to my mother and me if people knew.

I would really like if you could do more advertisements in Portmore, to show people that they would not like it if they were HIV-positive and people treated them badly. As the mayor, you really need to show people in Portmore that it is not nice to discriminate against people living with HIV. I look forward to you doing much more to educate people about the virus.

Children living with HIV, supported by Panos and The Gleaner Company, will be delivering letters advocating for positive change on the issues they have identified to movers and shakers in Jamaica.