Paramaribo
Suriname
Stichting Double Positive Surinamese AIDS Memorial Quilt since 1 December 1989
88 names
In 1987, Willy Alberga and other volunteers, together with the National Aids Programme (NAP), began to work on educating people about HIV and AIDS. It soon became clear that the amount of people infected with the virus, still relatively unknown at that time, was much higher than expected.
The San Francisco Buddies organisation provided support and information, and also told us about the making of quilts as a form of remembrance and a way of giving a face to those who had already died of AIDS. Suriname has a tradition of making quilts for various reasons, such as celebrating the birth of a baby or as a way of showing affection. Such quilts are called mamios. Making a mamio/quilt for a deceased loved one was thus a logical continuation of this tradition.
In 1989, we held our first big exhibition in the Grote Stadskerk (main church). This exhibition was attended by numerous VIPs who came to see the quilts from the USA, including one made by Doris Day in memory of Rock Hudson. It was, however, mostly the quilts made by young Surinamers which caught the attention of the tens of thousands of visitors who came to visit the exhibition during the week. We had invited many schools and the parents came to visit in the afternoons. Exhibitions throughout the country followed; schools, fire and police stations, prisons, hospital staff and more, all asked us to give presentations.
In the same year, the Mamio Names Project was founded in order to use the making of mamios to help bring the subject of HIV and AIDS to the Surinamese public's attention. First Lady Liesbeth Venetiaan became the patron of the project.
Since then, the entire Surinamese AIDS Memorial Quilt is presented in the Grote Stadskerk on every World AIDS Day, 1 December. Two quilt blocks travelled to Barcelona in 2002 where they were exhibited alongside sections from the entire world during the International AIDS Conference. In 2004, the quilt was exhibited in the Venezuelan Centre Andres Bello, and in 2006 in Ons Erf, the educative centre of the Diocese of Paramaribo.
The Quilt is made up of 11 blocks of 3.6x3.6 m, each block containing 8 mamios (quilt panels) for a deceased loved one from our community.

stichting Mamio NAMEN Project en stichting Double Positive