Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - 29 November 2004
Rosemarie North in Cambodia
But things haven't always looked so rosy for the 33-year-old.
In 2003 she became sick and decided to have an HIV test. Her husband had died suddenly in 1998. But it wasn't clear what caused his death - different clinics told the couple different stories. Still, the young widow wondered if she was now HIV-positive.
When In Touch got the result she had been dreading, life got a lot worse.
By now she was too weak to work, and had to spend money on medicines. At the same time, her dressmaking students feared they would be infected with HIV and so they took their sewing machines away.
Even a cafe a stone's throw from In Touch's home didn't want her business - they threw out the bowls and chopsticks she'd used, fearing she would transmit HIV through eating with them.
On a day when In Touch felt particularly depressed about her situation, she received a visit from a Red Cross volunteer, who took the time to talk about her difficulties and bring her food. Over the coming weeks the Red Cross also reached out to her neighbours and her trainee dressmakers.
The volunteers, part of the Cambodian Red Cross HIV/AIDS programme, brought posters into the village, showing the ways the virus was transmitted. They explained that normal contact with In Touch could not harm them.
One student, Chan Kim Sour, 19, remembers feeling afraid at first. She'd been coming for sewing classes for two weeks when she heard a rumour that In Touch was HIV-positive.
Chan Kim Sour believed mosquitoes could pass on the virus and almost didn't return. But then she found out AIDS could not be transmitted like that. So she stayed.
In some parts of Cambodia, others who fear they are at risk have marginalized people living with HIV, explains Dr Sok Long, manager of the Cambodian Red Cross HIV/AIDS programme, which is funded by the Australian and Swedish Red Cross societies, the OPEC Fund for International Development, FHI Impact, the Policy Project and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.
"Some families are so fearful that they try to get as far away as possible from HIV-positive people," Dr Sok Long says.
"We know of a woman who used to sell cakes door-to-door. When her husband tested positive, her business dried up. Customers were too afraid to buy from her. That was a terrible situation because she had become the sole breadwinner for the family."
A Red Cross survey in Siem Reap province in Cambodia found that stigma was particularly strong in rural villages, where most respondents reported they would not even visit an HIV-positive person at home.
Some people living with the virus reported that their families abandoned them, leaving them to live in a small hut far away.
"Before, my neighbours often came to chat and eat with me, but after they knew my status, they never came near me," one respondent said.
Another woman living with HIV said her neighbours were reluctant to let her use the village well. Other respondents reported that fewer people attended the funerals of HIV-positive people out of fear.
AIDS-related stigma takes a heavy toll on people who are already among the world's most disadvantaged. According to the 2003 United Nations Human Development Report, Cambodia has some of the lowest Human Development Indicators in Southeast Asia, ranking 130 on a global index of 173 countries.
The country's high rate of HIV/AIDS - the highest in Asia, at 2.6 percent - has hit the country hard, says Dr Long, who also chairs the Asian Red Cross and Red Crescent HIV/AIDS Network (ART Network).
When people don't have accurate knowledge about how the virus is spread, they are fearful, says Dr Long.
"So we're using our main resource - our staff and volunteers - to work in their own communities to reduce stigma. We do our work in teams of three. One person brings food and essential supplies to the HIV-positive person.
They sit down together and discuss how things are going. The other two volunteers visit neighbours, telling them how HIV is spread and encouraging them not to isolate the affected person."
Other aspects of the work of the Cambodian Red Cross, together with other organisations, include preventing transmission by educating young people, police and soldiers.
Today In Touch's business has improved - and her students are back. And she is well enough to volunteer with the Red Cross, visiting other villages to speak about HIV/AIDS and to show that HIV-positive people can lead healthy, productive lives.
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