Ricardo Herrera, aged 33, is a counsellor for Vida Libre, an Alliance-supported NGO that serves HIV-positive people in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Ricardo visits people in the hospital and at home, giving treatment advice, encouragement and support. Ricardo found out he was HIV positive in February 1991.

When his former partner Victor was ill in hospital they made each other a promise, that when he recovered they would go back to the hospital and give advice to other people living with HIV.