The People With AIDS (PWA) Self-Empowerment Movement is a social movement by those diagnosed with HIV/AIDS which grew out of San Francisco in the early 1980s. The PWA Self-Empowerment Movement believes that those diagnosed as having AIDS should "take charge of their own life, illness, and care, and to minimize dependence on others".^{[cite this quote]} The attitude that exists throughout the movement is that one should not assume that their life is over and will end soon solely because they have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Although most of the earliest organizers have died, and organizations dissolved or reconfigured into AIDS service organizations (ASOs) the self-empowerment and self-determination aspects of the movement continue. Possibly the best known example of a continuing PWA group is AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT-UP), which has chapters around the world and has had great success bringing attention to and change regarding issues concerning PWAs.

PWA is also used simply to mean "person with HIV/AIDS", regardless of whether that person is associated with the PWA Self-Empowerment Movement.

HIV-positive people are people who have the human immunodeficiency virus HIV, the agent of the currently incurable disease AIDS.

Over the years of coping with the stigma and discrimination that accompany the diagnosis in most societies, a large number of support groups have been formed. In these groups, the term most often applied to people who are HIV positive is "People Living With HIV/AIDS". This is often abbreviated as "PLWHA", "PLWA", or even "PLA". Recently, "People Living Positively" has also been used.

The largest and oldest of the worldwide networks of people living with HIV is the Global Network of People Living With HIV/AIDS (GNP+), which has affiliate networks on every continent.

Currently, UNAIDS estimates the number of people living with HIV at over 40,000,000. However, fewer than 20% of them are actually aware of the infection. Infection with HIV is determined by an HIV test.

HIV-positive people are often discriminated against because of (often unfounded) fears of infection and because the infection is negatively associated with promiscuity, homosexuality, and drug addiction. In addition, fear-based HIV prevention campaigns can intensify the stigma against HIV-positive individuals. In recent years, the rights of HIV-positive people have been a major source of debate and controversy.^{[citation needed]}

Ethan Zohn (born November 12, 1973) is a American professional soccer player, and a reality television series contestant who won $1,000,000 on Survivor: Africa, the third season of the reality TV series Survivor. He also appeared on the All-Stars edition of the show. After winning Survivor he co-founded Grassroot Soccer, which uses soccer to raise money and awareness to fight HIV/AIDS. On August 20, 2008, he began a 500-mile soccer dribble from Foxboro, Massachusetts to Washington, D.C. for that cause.

On January 22, 2010 he was ranked 14th in the USL Second Division Top 15 of the Decade, which announced a list of the best and most influential players of the previous decade.

In 2011, Zohn and his longtime girlfriend and fellow Survivor winner Jenna Morasca participated in the 19th season of The Amazing Race. They were eliminated 10th on the second (double elimination) episode.

Zohn was a soccer goalkeeper at Vassar College, and played professionally for the Hawaii Tsunami and Cape Cod Crusaders of the United Soccer Leagues and in Zimbabwe for Highlanders F.C.^{[citation needed]}. He donated some of his winnings from Survivor to starting Grassroot Soccer, an organization whose goal is to "mobilize the global soccer community to combat the AIDS epidemic in Africa". Shortly after winning Survivor Africa, Ethan was hired by ESPN to serve as a sideline reporter for the US National Team's matches in the 2002 FIFA World Cup.^{[citation needed]}