To mark Irish AIDS Day on 15th June 2013, women from Open Heart House in Dublin, a support service for people living with HIV and AIDS, have created a Quilt of Hope. The purpose of the quilt is to positively represent women living with HIV in Ireland and to highlight and overcome the issues that women living with the disease experience.

To launch this event Christ Church Cathedral is delighted to announce there will be a reception in the Cathedral on the 14th of June from 6pm till 7pm.

Each of the patches depict one woman’s story of hope for the future and was created as part of a therapeutic based project to enable them to overcome the issues that they experience. In particular, the stigma and self stigma associated with living and accepting the debilitating illness that currently affects 6,287 people diagnosed in Ireland to date, 25% of these being women.

The quilt project stemmed from a conversation the ladies had about their hopes for the future. They wanted to create something that would offer hope, inspiration, healing, self-acceptance and understanding to others regardless of their health status. The AIDS Memorial Quilt of 1987 remembered those who passed away so the women decided that they would design a quilt that would inspire and offer hope to every person who pass by it or contribute to it.

For all media enquiries please contact Paula Gilmore at T: 086-3832118 E: ei.esuohtraehnepo@aluaP

For more information on the quilt please see here.