Wendy Fitzwilliam (Trinidad and Tobago), who was crowned Miss Universe in 1998, is the Goodwill Ambassador for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and spokesperson for the Face to Face campaign, which is designed to promote and raise support for the family planning and reproductive health needs of millions of women and young people around the world. She also works closely with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), a co-sponsor of UNAIDS. Ms. Fitzwilliam spoke to Annette Ifill of the UN Chronicle after the town hall meeting at the United Nations in observance of World AIDS Day.

My work with UNAIDS has been threefold: education, awareness and advocacy. Initially it was more about HIV/AIDS with UNAIDS just to raise awareness primarily throughout the world, and to get people in the Caribbean talking about HIV/AIDS, because in 1998 when UNAIDS made me a goodwill ambassador, HIV/AIDS was buried in the Caribbean, no one discussed it, no one wanted to address it. We still have a problem where many people who are HIV-positive are never open about the disease. They don't even seek medical help at home if they can afford to travel abroad, mainly to Miami and New York, to get treatment. However, now there are people who are talking about it, discussing it.

With regard to advocacy and education particularly, I have openly lobbied — and UN/AIDS has afforded me many opportunities, many different forums to lobby — our Governments to just acknowledge HIV/AIDS as an issue that we must deal with, to put programmes in place in terms of education, in terms of health care. Yes, you get tested, but then what? What happens to you after you know you are HIV-positive? So UNAIDS is giving me the opportunity to lobby our Governments to do that kind of advocacy. And then there is also the educational aspect which is so vitally important to prevent the spread of this disease. And regardless of what I do, even if it is something totally unrelated to UNAIDS, I have been able on many occasions to tie in educational work. Just recently, I was in St. Kitts primarily to judge a pageant. However, the St. Kitts/Nevis AIDS Committee hosted me for a few days prior to the pageant and I was able to meet with high school students, discuss HIV/AIDS with them openly, which is something that is so rare in the Caribbean because it is so taboo. Talking about sex is so scary for many of us, so the UN has afforded me a great opportunity for that kind of dialogue.

A World AIDS Day Fact Sheet states that in Trinidad and Tobago the adult HIV-prevalence rate is 1 adult in 100, and that five times more boys than girls 15 to 19 are infected with HIV. Also, you stated at the World AIDS Day town hall meeting that boys are socialized differently from girls in the Caribbean. How can we involve families in changing this?

That's a heavy question, and I think as far as changing the behavioural patterns of our men, particularly the sexual behavioural patterns, there is maybe a twofold solution to that problem. Just as we have campaigns, whether it is a Guinness Stout or Carib beer or whatever which are targeted to our men, we need to do the same with regard to the campaigns that are targeted towards our people in regard to healthy sexual behaviour, and we can do that by engaging the services of our male celebrities — calypsonians, musicians and cricketing and soccer heroes — particularly because they seem to be non-existent in terms of the social fabric of our society unless we are scandalizing them, talking about how many women they have, etc. We need to get our men to think, to get them to reassess their behaviour; and two, we need to target our men through the women in our society. Most of our households are single-parent households and it's our women raising our men, and raising them with that horrible double standard that is so entrenched in West Indian society. And how do we get our women to change their behaviour in terms of the way they rear their children? That's by getting them to get together through workshops: we're the ones who go to church, we drag our men to church, etc., so it's through our church groups, when we sit down to discuss something over tea or whatever, where we can talk about those issues. When one of your girlfriends who has a young son who is a hot, cute little teenager and she is encouraging him to go out there and play the field, ask her why she is not encouraging her daughter to do the same. If it's okay for the boy, then it should be okay for the girl as well. Remind our women that when we encourage our men to practise loose sexual behaviour and disrespect our women, there is another mother out there who is training her son to come after your daughter, and once we understand that, once we keep talking about it over and over, I think we will see a change. But it's twofold. Definitely we need to get the prominent men in our society more involved in the large poster campaigns and the television spots, the public service announcements, etc., with regard to targeting our men; and we also need to reeducate our men with regard to rearing our children.

You established the Hibiscus Foundation two years ago to increase AIDS awareness. Could you tell us more about this Foundation, and is it only for Trinidad and Tobago?

Annette Ifill in her conversation with Wendy Fitzwilliam.

Thus far, the Hibiscus Foundation is in existence and operating only in Trinidad and Tobago. However, I would like to take the Foundation regional, but that would take a little time. If left up to me, it would have been done yesterday, but I've learnt with time that doing things properly is of utmost importance if you're going to have an impact, and there is a lot of work to be done in Trinidad and Tobago. The Hibiscus Foundation thus far has not been largely involved in education and awareness necessarily as a foundation. We act more as a brokerage firm, if I may say so, for education and awareness on a large scale. If any children's organization, not just those that deal with pediatric AIDS but any organization for children, seeks our help, we are willing to lend it, we're willing to give help, but you must have an open-door policy. We are attempting to develop tolerance in Trinidad and Tobago with regard to HIV from an institutional level by saying to organizations, yes, we will gladly give you support if you need medication, you need toiletries, you want to have birthday parties for the children at your home, at a popular fast-food outlet or whatever. We can make it happen for you, but you need to include everyone and that means children who are HIV-positive or not. So, for example, recently we helped an organization in Trinidad called the Tables Turned Workshop, which teaches children who cannot afford computers and who don't have access at all on computer literacy, which is very important, I think, for our future. And this organization has been willing to take on children as a result. In other words, we say we are helping you, but take on a few children who we know are HIV-positive, train them as well. That means that children who are not HIV-positive, who are not living with AIDS, have to interact with those who are and that's how I think you go about breaking some of the barriers that people living with HIV face, particularly in the Caribbean. We must do it at an institutional level. So Hibiscus has been very involved in that area. Right now, we are working on a campaign for our carnival season 2001 in Trinidad and Tobago with Ronnie McIntosh, who is a very popular calypsonian in Trinidad and, as a matter of fact, the world over. Anywhere soca music is popular, people generally know Ronnie and he is working with us on an awareness and tolerance campaign, because this year the focus of the United Nations, UNAIDS specifically, as you know, is men. Men make a difference, so Ronnie has been gracious enough to be the first to jump on board with us.

Is the United Nations Population Fund asking you to be active in other regions as well?

Yes, actually through UNFPA I have been able to travel to Geneva and meet with other goodwill ambassadors, and UNFPA does encourage interaction with their goodwill ambassadors to move outside of your region. Of course my focus would be the Caribbean because that's what you want a goodwill ambassador to do — use your celebrity to raise awareness of a particular issue in the area in which that person is most popular. But many of the UNFPA goodwill ambassadors are popular outside of their region. You know, I find here in the United States many, particularly people of colour, know who Wendy Fitzwilliam is. I didn't think initially in a country that is so full of celebrities that African Americans would necessarily recognize me. I consider myself way down on the totem pole when compared to Colby Bryant, Halle Berry or Vanessa Williams or whomever, but young African Americans particularly, and even Latino Americans who are pageant fans, know who I am, so I have had the opportunity here to speak at different schools during the last two years on this and encourage discussion. I am not a lecturer; therefore, instead of going to a school and lecturing, I have had open discussions where they might not have existed before, using my celebrity status here in the United States.

Prime Minister Basdeo Panday of Trinidad and Tobago, in a recent speech, said that the three women most recently crowned Miss Universe are "exceptional role models to young people everywhere". What positive influence do you wish to have on them?

Goodwill Ambassadors (from left): Wanis Dirie, Vendela Thommessen, Bui Nakhirunkanok, Mpule Kwelagobe, Lupita Jones, Wendy Fitzwilliam, and Rosy Sennanyaka.

Well, firstly I would like to thank Mr. Panday for that comment but, at the same time, being a role model bears a heavy responsibility, and to young women everywhere I would like my legacy to be that I am true to my beliefs and that they should, as well. Even if your beliefs in terms of where you want to go, whether it's career-wise or socially, may not be the most popular, firmly believe in what you are doing — and that's the only way you will get results. There'll always be naysayers and rightly so. Bill Gates would not be Bill Gates today if he took on many of the people who told him, hello, go to school, get an education, become a doctor, what are you talking about with these computers? You know, Mother Teresa would not be the woman she became for the world if she had not listened to that call to go to India and help women and people generally who were destitute. So it's sometimes very difficult, but hold on to your beliefs, go for what you believe in; but once you work very hard, I think you can achieve. I think thus far, and I am not saying that I am anywhere near where I want to be in life, but thus far that has got me through, that got me through Miss Universe, believing in myself. It wasn't necessarily believing I was going to win Miss Universe, but believing in who Wendy Fitzwilliam is, being proud of my culture, where I come from, believing that nothing and no one could stand in the way of my achieving and that is fortunately something that has been instilled in me through my parents and through my community generally — a community in which everyone encouraged everyone else's children to do well. You were always given a little pat on your back if you excelled and I think that's something I would like to leave as my legacy: a firm belief in who I am. I hope that when the world looks backs at Wendy's life, regardless of where I go, what I do, whether it's a music career, singing, working with the UN, whatever, firmly holding to my beliefs and who I am is something that will always stand at the forefront.

You recently completed your studies and received a law degree despite your busy schedule as Miss Universe. One of the Face to Face campaign issues reports that history has proven that educated women make the right reproductive choices. Please comment on this.

That is so true. Why is education so important? I think for two reasons. If you have the ability to read, and to not only read but digest and fully comprehend the material you are reading, it empowers you, you are exposed to so much more, and therefore you can make choices. If you are not educated, then you can't make choices, you have to swallow and believe only what is being told to you. Secondly, education generally empowers both men and women, but women particularly, from an economic point of view as well. And let's face facts, if you are starving to death and you have two children to feed, I don't care how much I tell you that safe sex, using a condom with your sexual partners, is going to save your life and the lives of your children, if that man, whom you know is sleeping with six other women, comes home and wants to sleep with you and have unprotected sex and he is your meal ticket and the meal ticket of your children, you're not going to think twice about jumping into bed with him and having unprotected sex. So education opens up many other opportunities as well for women in terms of economics and being able to stand on their own two feet, and that enables you to make choices that you would not necessarily have if you are not economically sound. My mom loves to say that everyone these days is so quick to jump into divorce court. I think society has evolved sufficiently now in the Caribbean where we can begin to question the way women and men relate to each other, but I don't think we are relating to each other in any worse manner than my grandparents did — it's just that my grandmother did not have any options. She had to go from her mother's house to her husband's house and that's where she stayed. She had no choices. She finished school — if they made it to the end of primary school that was a lot in those days for most women — and you had no choice but to stay in an unhealthy, unhappy relationship.

Now more women have choices and we are at the point where we are saying to ourselves: but wait, this isn't good, the way our family seems to be falling apart and splitting up isn't a good thing. Our families were always falling apart and splitting up, we just kept it very quiet. I can't tell you of one funeral that I've been to for someone of my grandmother's generation, or even my mother's generation, at which at least 5 to 10 half-brothers and sisters who they had never heard about before hadn't turned up. So it's not that things are that different in terms of the way men and women relate to each other, it's just that women now, because they are well educated, because they have more economic power, can stand on their own two feet, and are saying, no, I am not taking this. But we are at that point where we are saying to ourselves, how do we involve our men, how do we mend these broken, horrible relationships? We want to, we do want to stay involved with our partners for an eternity, but not because we are forced to, not bcause we have no other choices economically, but because we respect each other.

The goal of the Face to Face campaign is to increase global awareness that women's rights are human rights. How much has media attention focused on this issue in the Caribbean region?

As far as I'm concerned, media attention has not focused enough on women's rights per se. There has been a lot of talk recently about women's rights, particularly in Trinidad and Tobago, and I think it is because domestic violence is very visible in Trinidad and Tobago — not that it did not exist before, but in the last two to three years some legislation was passed that carries very strong penalties for abusive spouses. Domestic violence seemed to be always on the front pages of our newspapers and on television, and it's good that we are aware of it now, but what are we doing about it? Are we just sensationalizing the violence? It will sell newspapers so let's put the body of a bloody woman and her slaughtered children on the front page of the newspaper. Where are we going from there? The Face to Face campaign and UNFPA particularly have not in the past been very vocal in the Caribbean and I think the campaign, when it was conceived, was targetted at western European nations, the wealthier nations of the world, to encourage their populations to lobby their Governments to lend financial support, particularly to the so-called developing world. However, the campaign has been and continues to be very successful in that area. They have not given up on Western Europe and the United States, but are certainly moving beyond raising funds only in the developed world and are now focusing on the developing world — the Caribbean nations, sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America — to help themselves, in terms not only of finance, but also of reeducating our people by talk, by constantly having people like myself speak out on the issues. Because before Face to Face taking on the Caribbean, there wasn't a face per se for that issue and it is very hard to get people involved if they can't identify with the issue.