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By Jan Gabriel Castañeda The HIV crisis has gone on for four decades, and for four decades the world has struggled against it. Doctors, scientists, educators, policy makers, writers, artists -- people of all walks and all colors have, in their own ways, sought to make sense of this crisis and its relationship with society. From citizens to states, from medicine to prayer, from cures to cries for reform, people’s visions of how to respond to the crisis are as diverse as the people who bear its scars. The goal of this series is to give you a glimpse of these visions: the roles people of different passions and disciplines have played in this crisis that, as of March 2016 as recorded by the Department of Health’s Epidemiology Bureau, is infecting 25 Filipinos daily. To call compassion a dangerous temptation is a little odd, but it is something every advocate understands well. It’s the temptation to give without restraint, moved by the moral compulsion to serve a higher purpose and the natu...

Roberto Pinauin is what you would call an expert in his field, having spent almost two decades in NGO work. But with his new role as a LoveYourself life coach, he experiences a kick that only going back to basics can bring. "It sounds almost vain and messianic, but that's what people are looking for when they get into socially oriented activities – having that one-on-one contact. Even if you only get to experience that once a week, you know you're doing something concrete." By Jean Natividad   It was a day to stay vivid in Robert's memory until many years later. "I was working in South Africa and visiting a hospice. This was palliative care for people who were about to die, at the time when South Africa was the epicenter of the HIV epidemic," he recalls. "I touched a woman who was in the bed. She then jerked away from me and started crying." The woman had not had any physical contact with a non-health worker in so long – Robert soon found out ...