Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
‘The Little Agency That Could’ – Still Can!
Shirlene Cooper, Co-Executive Director, NYCAHN
The New York City AIDS Housing Network is very proud once again to participate in C2EA. Our demands to the next President of the U.S.A to develop a National Aids Strategy is the right thing to do. The Stand Against AIDS 2008 is important to us because we have over 3800 members who “LUST ” for an end to this epidemic.
Still Here and Still Clear… END AIDS!
Laverne Holley, NYCAHN/Citywide
I am an original C2EAer and I still have quite a bit to say… but, in a nutshell, since we’ve left New York – everywhere we’ve gone – we’ve met new family members and the love is growing! We have to get the word out and stop the stigma. We need to let them know that there is life after HIV. However, we still need to END AIDS!
Caring and Sharing
Famous Amos from NYC
It touched me to see that we are touching people and people aren’t running away from us anymore. There isn’t as much stigma, denial, and fear. You don’t have to be infected to be affected and now that is better understood since movements like the Campaign – we reach directly out to communities and tells them that we care about them. The caring and sharing today in Baltimore has superceded any of my expectations and NOW I believe that 10 years ago was much different – and communities can start understanding… let their voices be heard and be able to make a change.
- Amos Hough, Black People Inc.
Reflections
During the rally on Wednesday, Brandon Plain of Artists for Advocacy International delivered a powerful and moving poem titled Reflections, which I wanted to share here.
In solidarity,
Cameron
www.champnetwork.org
A Recipe for a National AIDS Strategy
There’s been a lot of talk recently about the need for a national AIDS strategy. But what exactly would go in such a strategy? Well, I’m sitting in a barn outside of Oxford, MS with over 60 people that traveled here from around the country who are talking about just that. After a morning of affinity group meetings (such as transgender, youth, women, faith-based, harm reduction and more), the groups are reporting back what on what they–we–need in a national AIDS strategy.
Just a few of the things we need are:
* A campaign against homophobia
* Research for women with HIV
* Prevention for 50+ year-olds
* Housing for all
* Latino communities–recognize barriers: language, religions
* Include discordant couples in the NAS–recognize challenges to prevention–expand access to relevant prevention strategies
* Post-incarceration reentry services
* Leadership composed of PLWHA
* Awareness made for young people that really reaches young people
And the list goes on and on… I count 11 sheets on giant flipchart paper on the walls here! I hope they post the full list online soon!
In solidarity,
Cameron
www.champnetwork.org
The show will go on
Even though McCain might be MIA in Oxford Friday (still unclear), the Stand Against AIDS will continue to be very present calling on the next president to have a National AIDS Strategy.
Today there was a powerful rally again at the town square in Oxford with representatives from all the caravans sharing their stories. A reoccurring theme was that even with Medicaid and Ryan White which is supposed to be the safety net, there are still way too many people who don’t have medical care and are dying of AIDS.
In the afternoon,, some C2EAers staged an impromptu rally to take advantage of the press coverage that has descended on Oxford. Then everyone relaxed at a bbq in a beautiful park. Dazon Dixon Diallo organized a Southern women’s affinity group to allow people to tell their stories and share what is needed for a National AIDS Strategy before tomorrow’s session.
We’re in Oxford
hi! We’ve made it! Yesterday all (or at least most) of the caravaners arrived in Oxford, Mississippi. After meeting at parking lot where lots of hugs were exchanged between old and new friends. We had a great press conference on the steps of the town square,where we got a lot of local coverage. Larry Bryant, Robin Webb of Mississippi and a bunch of other folks talked about why we need a National AIDS Strategy.
Also speaking was Zachariah, a 21-year old who’s about to join the national guard. When he say the walkers in Greenwood, he was heading to the recruitment center to work out. Why not just walk for exercise, he thought? So he joined the Stand Against AIDS and is currently camped out with everyone else. “End AIDS Now!” he yelled at the rally. There were 38 pairs of shoes displayed in honor of the 38 Americans that die of AIDS (a PREVENTABLE and TREATABLE disease) every day.
About 75 folks are here from New York, Illinois, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Colorado, Hawaii, Texas, Virginia, Florida and I’m sure I’m forgetting a few, Everyone is spread out between two campsites and right now is media trainng. We’re having another rally today then a get-to-know you bbq.
Prescription to end AIDS in Chicago (and beyond)
From David Munar, AIDS Foundation of Chicago:
At Saturday’s 2008 AIDS Run & Walk Chicago, AIDS Foundation of Chicago collected several hundred individual suggestions re “a prescription to end AIDS.” We reformatted C2EA’s message-in-a-bottle campaign to recycle a large cardboard cut-out of a pill bottle we had in the office. We also distributed 2,500 safe-sex kits through a new campaign called “Love the One You’re With” (see: www.aidschicago.org/condoms), conducted voter registration, and led more than a dozen educational sessions on male and female condoms.
Text of the Stand Against AIDS/NAS campaign is below. See the pics at: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=57878&l=59078&id=796819697
WRITE THE U.S. A PRESCRIPTION TO END AIDS!
PATIENT: The United States
DIAGNOSIS: Escalating Cases of HIV/AIDS
TREATMENT: National AIDS Strategy: www.nationalaidsstrategy.org
TAKE AS DIRECTED: Tell the next President what remedies to include in a National AIDS Plan.
RX INDICATION: The U.S. can stop new infections and improve the lives of people with HIV/AIDS with a results-oriented plan of action.
POSSIBLE REACTIONS: Without strong leadership, the AIDS crisis will only get worse.
–
Prescription pads for individual suggestions:
PATIENT: The United States
DIAGNOSIS: Escalating Cases of HIV/AIDS
TREATMENT: National AIDS Strategy: www.nationalaidsstrategy.org
My prescription to end HIV/AIDS is:
[fill in the blank]
The Dream Hasn’t Died
Cameron Craig, (George Jefferson)
Hi, this is Cameron Craig, coming from you from part 2, of C2EA called The Stand Against AIDS. Before I comment on this monumentous trip to Oxford MS., I would like to thank the following people: Dr. Leonard Berkowitz from Brooklyn Hopsital, Nancy Margenson from Out of the Box Productions, Clem from Bernie’s Fish and Chips in the Bronx, Dahlia Heller from the NYC DOH and Citiwide Harm Reduction for their donations. These are all the people who made it possible for Weezy and I to be part of this caravan.
I would like to go back to 2005 when we began C2EA Paving the Way Caravan – I would like to thank the people of Newark for taking control of their government and voted out a man who was against needle exchange who condemned his people to a life long agony of drug addiction, Hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS ( Sharpe James – former Mayor of Newark). We’re glad to see NJCRI for becoming the only needle exchange in Newark – there is no other needle exchange in Newark. Because of this initiative, we hope to slow down the spread of drug addiction, Hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS within the community.
Because of the work of countless agencies around the country, we are mobilizing again to force the two presidential candidates to enact a National AIDS Strategy in their first 100 days. This is a pandemic of enormous proportions that ’s affecting women more than us men. And it is time that this country take a Stand and come to grips with the fact that enough is not being done to stop the spread of HIV in America. We hope that with this initiative, we can convince the two nominees to come up with an effective plan of stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS within America. More will come within the days that follow as we get closer and closer to Oxford MS for the first presidential debate.
The Honor of Commitment
- The Honor of Commitment
When asked to participate in this adventure to Oxford,Mississippi and represent others living with this virus and to hold our elected officals accountable to our trust and faith to commitment to a cause that has devastated our communities across this nation. i was overwelmed with the greatest honor, i am from Harlem and am with Harlem United an agency that services a large community of HIV + people who are tired of the constant battle to maintain an integerty of life when budgets are always being cut as though life has no meaning. NO MORE; the people at Housing Works and teams of other agencies across this nation have had enough and with this carvan we are bringing the vocies of those living with this virus to the faces of the presidential canidates.
