A 30 year old female client visited the Hanoi legal clinic June 16, 2009. She and her husband are HIV positive and do not have any children. She was a worker in a company in Hanoi but  was fired from her job by the Director of this company due to her HIV status. She could not find any other job and became a destitute, with no money for housing.  She learned about the legal clinic through a peer counselor and came to ask for help in regaining her job in this company.
 
The clinic lawyer helped her understand the Law on HIV/AIDS prevention and control (article 4 item 1, article 3, and article 14 item 2 point a); Decree No. 45/ 2005/ NĐ-CP issued on 6/4/2005 (Point e, item 2, article 14 about administrative sanctions in the health sector) and let her know that the Director of this company had been wrong to dismiss her due to her HIV status. The lawyer also helped the client prepare a petition to send to the Union of this company. A back up action was sending a petition to the labor inspector if the director of the company did not call her back to her job. Fortunately, she got her job back right after the first petition was sent.

In the words of this client, “although, I am HIV positive I am still able to work as others who are not HIV infected”. She expressed her “sincere thanks to the legal clinic for helping me to get my job back.. I have learned about the HIV/AIDS news on television in the last five years. But I think that the HIV/AIDS Law needs to be disseminated to workplaces to reduce the stigma and discrimination that  PLHA like me often face.”