An ongoing project of HEALTH EXTENSION LIFE PROTOCOL, the Wall of Hope was begun and named by the volunteers of The Network for Patients & Families, an H.E.L.P. peers support program comprised of HIV+, cancer survivors and their family members.
From the beginning, the Network volunteers wanted to share with others, people's stories of their lives after a cancer, HIV+ diagnosis. By sharing in this way they hoped it would offer people inspiration, support and, of course, hope when they might be feeling most afraid. Perhaps more importantly, through each individual's story the word "hope" becomes defined in a different way.
People's hopes are different and when a person reads a story, each person is looking for something in the story that will speak to them. We all know that sometimes the stories that are the most important, the most poignant, the most giving, are the ones that do not end, "and they all lived happily ever after." No ones life is like that. Each person in the Wall of Hope is there, not because it was certain that they would live, but because of the richness of wisdom, love, courage that was communicated in their story and picture.
