National Minority AIDS Council Hosts Women of Color Leadership Institute

The National Minority AIDS Council will be hosting a Women of Color leadership institute July 29-31.

The Women of Color Leadership Institute (WOCLI) Training, designed by the Division of Government Relations and Public Policy (GRPP) at the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) in Washington, D.C., is aimed at achieving greater and more meaningful participation of women of color in decision-making at all levels to ensure programs, policies and funding respond to the unique impact of chronic diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Diabetes, Heart Disease, Cancer and others on women.

The training consists of five modules implemented by the division of Government Relations and Public Policy at the National Minority AIDS Council. Training modules will equip and empower a cadre of confident, knowledgeable and skilled women leaders to 1) advocate at all levels for effective women’s health policies and increased funding to address the unique impact of chronic disease such as HIV/AIDS, Diabetes, Heart Disease, Cancer and others on women and girls, and 2) prevent the spread and mitigate the effects of chronic diseases through high quality, gender sensitive, community-based women’s health programs and services. Major activities carried out under each training component include a needs assessment on women’s leadership, management, advocacy and women’s health knowledge and skills.

NMAC seeks to recruit 25 - 30 women of color for each training site, on a “first come first serve” basis. NMAC will be happy to work with the local health departments, other public health entities, community- and faith-based organizations as well as local academic institutions to recruit the participants for training. Although criteria are not static, we intend to recruit a group of women of color from various health care and other backgrounds, committed to leadership in women’s health. As such, NMAC screens applicants and selects participants in a way that creates a balance of experience during the training.

The training is free of charge, however, NMAC does not provide transportation and lodging to and from the training. During the training provided under NMAC funding, NMAC will provide both breakfast and lunch for the three days of training.

Visit www.nmac.org/index/wocli for more information.

Spotlight: HIV/AIDS and African Americans in Washington DC

One of the striking featurs of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the District of Columbia is the disproportionate impact of the disease by race and ethnicity. Although African Americans comprised 57% of District residents in 2006, they accounted for 81% of all new reports of HIV cases and all living AIDS cases.

Find out more. To see the squidoo page on HIV/AIDS and African Americans in Washington, DC click here

February 7 is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness and Information Day (NBHAAD). This annual observance day was created to raise awareness among African Americans about HIV/AIDS and its devastating impact on African American communities. To find out more about Natioal Blck HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, click here.

Sheryl Lee Ralph To Organize Protest at Lincoln Memorial

Actress Sheryl Lee Ralph, best known for her work in the musical Dreamgirls and the sitcom Moesha, has also been known for years for her commitment to fight HIV/AIDS.

Sheryl Lee Ralph has worked closely with the National Minority AIDS Council and organized numerous fundraisers including her well known annual event, Divas Simply Singing. She has performed her one woman show about HIV/AIDS, Sometimes I Cry, here in DC and around the country.

Ralph will take her activism to new territory on September 27th, however, as she stages a sit-in to call the federal government to take action on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the African American community. The National Ledger reports:

Ralph who has traveled to several southern African countries to present HIV/AIDS workshops and presentations, with the support of PEPFAR is distressed by the lack of similar effort to eradicate AIDS in Black American communities.

“I am happy there is PEPFAR but how many times does the CDC have to report that over half of all new HIV infections are occurring among African Americans before we do something about it? HIV/AIDS threatens the very future of Blacks right here in America.“

Ralph hopes she will be joined in D.C. by anyone who is willing to take a stand or a seat and demand change when it comes to the health of all Americans. “The time is now! If we don’t stand up for ourselves who will? AIDS affects us all!”

AIDS: The Cavalry is Not Coming to Save Us

Pernessa Seele, who founded the group Balm in Gilead, writes on Anderson Cooper 360 Blog:

The world has been very consumed with the devastation of AIDS in Africa. Great! However, there should be a worldwide out-cry that 1 in 20 persons living in Washington, DC, our nation’s capital, is living with the AIDS virus. Over 80% of these persons living with HIV in Washington, DC, are Black Americans.

The HIV prevalence rate in Washington, DC, (5%) is fast approaching the levels of infection in Uganda (5.4%).

read the entire article at Anderson Cooper 360:.

Breaking the Silence on HIV

emPower Magazine Editorial Director/Publisher DeShuna Spencer writes about HIV in the District of Columbia:

Recently, while boarding the subway, an ad inside of the train car caught my attention. In big black letters the poster read: 1 in 20 people live with HIV. From first glance, one might’ve thought the ad was referring to an African country where HIV is devastating entire families and communities. But the statistics were actually referring to the District of Columbia, my own backyard. After conducting further Google research at home, I learned that Washington DC has the highest AIDS rate among major cities. And what’s even more alarming, 9 out of 10 women who test positive in the District are black.

Continue reading this article at emPower

National Black AIDS Awareness Day 2009

February 7 is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness and Information Day (NBHAAD). This annual observance day was created to raise awareness among African Americans about HIV/AIDS and its devastating impact on African American communities. The day is part of a national mobilization effort to get African Americans to learn more about the threat posed by the disease, get tested, get treated and make a commitment to fight HIV/AIDS.

Here in Washington, DC there is no question that African Americans are disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS. According to our recent surveillance report, African Americans make up about 55% of the DC population, but constitute 80% of District residents living with HIV. Further, of the 842 cases of HIV/AIDS among men who have sex with men from 2001 to 2006, 63% were among black men.

National Black AIDS Awareness Day is a great opportunity to raise awareness of how HIV/AIDS impacts Black gay and bisexual men. If you're interested in helping organize a National Black AIDS Awareness Day event in Washington DC, please let me know.

To learn more about the National Black AIDS Awareness Day, visit www.blackaidsday.org.

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For information on 2007 National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day Events in DC, click here.

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FREE RETREAT February 7th-9th

During the retreat you will get a chance to talk to other individuals about issues that you face everyday and discuss ways to help overcome issues by listening to others that have overcome similar issues, all while being away in a relaxing retreat.

Healthy Relationships is a program for small groups off people living with HIV/AIDS. Knowing that the lives of persons living with HIV/AIDS are stressful, this retreat aims to build coping skills to reduce stress. Some of the skills involve:

• Solving problems
• Making decisions
• Negotiating choices

These skills can be used in situations such as:

• Disclosing HIV status to family and friends
• Disclosing to sex partners
• Building healthy and safer relationships

Healthy Relationships does not tell people they should disclose. Participants use the skills to make informed decisions about disclosure and sexual behavior.

For more information:

call 202-446-1100
or
Email

Ken Pettigrew
Kpettigrew@uhupil.org

Kenya Hutton
Khutton@uhupil.org

The Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS

The Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS is a powerful week of prayer, education and action. The annual observance takes place Sunday March 2nd, to Saturday, March 8th, 2008. This national AIDS awareness campaign engages Black congregations to support, encourage and empower African Americans, Africans and all people of the Diaspora to take action toward stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS in Black communities worldwide. The Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS is sponsored nationally by The Balm in Gilead.

To mark this week, your minister could dedicate a sunday sermon to the topic of HIV/AIDS in DC. Your minister could lead by example and get an HIV test, and make HIV testing available to the congregation on site. You could make HIV/AIDS the topic of a sunday school lesson, or plan a special event to talk about HIV/AIDS in DC. There are lots of possibilities.

Now is an excellent time to talk to your church about participating in the Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS. You can find out more at the Balm in Gilead website. When you're ready you can register your church online. And of course, if there is anything I can do to help, please let me know.

An HIV/AIDS Research Agenda for Black Gay Men

The statistics on HIV and black gay men are sobering. A 2005 CDC study, conducted in 5 large US cities, found that HIV prevalence among black MSM (46%) was more than twice that among white MSM (21%). (citation). It's hard to imagine that in these cities almost half of all black gay men are living with HIV.

When it comes to HIV prevention, what works for white gay men does not necessarily work for black gay men. There's still a lot we need to understand about what is fueling these high HIV rates and what we should be doing about it.

Fortunately, the National Black Gay Men's Advocacy Coalition (NBGMAC), which formed shortly after this data was released, has been working hard to improve the health and well-being of black gay men through advocacy that is focused on research, policy, education and training. NBGMAC is housed in Washington, DC at the offices of Us Helping Us.

NBGMAC will continue to their work at the October 24th meeting of the NIH Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council (OAR). The OAR meeting will focus on challenges of HIV infection in racial and ethnic communities in the United States.

Dr. Leo Wilton will present a summary of the Black Gay Research Agenda for the NBGMAC and the Black Gay Research Group. The meeting will be held at 5635 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20852 in the Terrace Level Conference Center.

It's an important step forward in advocating for the HIV research needs of black gay men, and you can be there. The meeting is open to the public. Time will be allowed for public comment at the end of the meeting. If you can attend and would like to attend, please contact Christina Brackna at (301) 402-8655 for additional information .

HAA Announces New Funds: Advocates Issue Guidance

Back in September the CDC announced that DC would be one of several jurisdictions to receive new funding to support HIV testing primarily in African American populations.

The Department of Health released their own press release last week sharing that the grant from the CDC is for a whopping $1,461,874. The funds should significantly beef up the Districts struggling HIV testing program, provided they are used wisely and responsibly.

“As the city with the highest HIV and AIDS rates in the country and the first to start routine HIV screening, the District of Columbia is proud to lead this initiative to fight HIV in our African American community,” said Dr. Pane.

But some advocates are questioning whether a routine testing strategy really is more effective than an HIV testing strategy that targets communities most at risk. Research by Dr. David Holtgrave, from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, indicate that targeted HIV testing may be the better way to go. Of course, the answer to that question is in part connected to what our local epidemic looks like. And since we are still waiting for surveillance data, it's hard to say.

Meanwhile, a number of HIV/AIDS advocacy groups have teamed up to issue recommendations on how these new testing campaigns should be conducted. Lambda Legal, AIDS Foundation of Chicago and the Center for HIV Law and Policy are sending a set of 15 HIV testing principles to help guide the 23 state and local public health departments, announced last week, that will receive funding by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to conduct increased HIV testing campaigns.

The principles, which to date have been endorsed by over 70 health, service and advocacy organizations and physicians, are set forth in a document entitled “Expanding the Availability and Acceptance of Voluntary HIV Testing: Fundamental Principles to Guide Implementation.”

“As local public health agencies use new grant monies, it is vitally important that certain principles guide those efforts, to ensure that HIV testing is always informed, voluntary, confidential, and supported by health care,” said Bebe Anderson, HIV Project Director at Lambda Legal and one of the primary authors of the Fundamental Principles. “Otherwise, the worthy goals of increasing early diagnosis and care for those who are living with HIV will suffer.”

The complete document is available on the Lambda legal website. The 15 guiding principles include:

• People living with undiagnosed HIV infection must be reached and offered testing.
• Any HIV testing program must provide the highest standard of care.
• Everyone offered testing must be educated about HIV and the significance of positive and negative test results.
• People who test positive for HIV antibodies must be linked to care.
• Patients' human rights and informed consent are consistent with, and not opposed to, the goal of expanded HIV testing.
  Expanded HIV testing must be tailored to different clinical settings, populations, and patient needs.
• Clinicians, medical directors and other providers must receive training and education in making appropriate service referrals and linkages to care.
  Special attention must be paid to the prevention and care needs of at-risk populations.

Get Involved!

Your organization can sign on to the document. Visit www.hivtestingprinciples.org to find out more.

'Family' Values: Gil Robertson

ACCORDING TO a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report, African-Americans are 10 times more likely to contract HIV/AIDS than their white counterparts.

Veteran reporter and syndicated columnist Gil L. Robertson IV knows this fact all too well: His brother Jeffrey D. Robertson was diagnosed as HIV-positive in the mid-1980s.

The people of Washington, D.C., should be intimately aware of this stat, too, but too often we're not. It's estimated that one in every 20 adults in the District is HIV-positive, with 82 percent of those being African-Americans.

D.C. also has the highest rate of new AIDS cases per 100,000 people in the U.S.

That's 10 times the national average.

It's stark numbers like these, plus his family's own story, that led Robertson to create the book "Not in My Family: AIDS in the African-American Community"

continue reading this article in Express

DC and other Jurisdictions Receive Additional CDC Funds to Support HIV Testing and Increase Early Diagnosis of HIV among African Americans

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded $35 million in funding to state and local health departments to increase HIV testing opportunities among populations disproportionately affected by HIV, primarily African Americans. Twenty-three states and major metropolitan areas, including Washington DC, will receive awards ranging from $690,000 to $5.4 million.

“This program seeks to test more than 1 million people with the primary goal of increasing early HIV diagnosis among African Americans,” said Kevin Fenton, M.D., director of CDC′s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention. “HIV testing provides a critical pathway to prevention and treatment services to prolong the lives of those infected and help stop the spread of HIV in the hardest hit communities across the United States.”

The $35 million is part of a new $45 million program to expand access to HIV testing. The remaining $10 million will support a range of CDC programs to provide needed training to health care providers, mobilize communities to encourage HIV testing among African Americans, and reach both providers and those at risk with information on the importance of testing.

For more information on HIV prevention, visit www.cdc.gov/hiv

Us Helping Us: Support Counselor for HIV Positive Black Gay Men

Are you a black HIV positive gay man that needs somoene to talk to? Then call Us Helping Us. Us Helping has a support counselor available for you to talk to, and incentives are offerred for every visit. For more information contact Rukie Wilson at 202 446-1100 ext 1124.

National Black AIDS Awareness Day: Febuary 7th, 2008

February 7 is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness and Information Day (NBHAAD). This annual observance day was created to raise awareness among African Americans about HIV/AIDS and its devastating impact on African American communities. The day is part of a national mobilization effort to get African Americans to learn more about the threat posed by the disease, get tested, get treated and make a commitment to fight HIV/AIDS.

Here in Washington, DC there is no question that African Americans are disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS. According to our recent surveillance report, African Americans make up about 55% of the DC population, but constitute 80% of District residents living with HIV. Further, of the 842 cases of HIV/AIDS among men who have sex with men from 2001 to 2006, 63% were among black men.

National Black AIDS Awareness Day is a great opportunity to raise awareness of how HIV/AIDS impacts Black gay and bisexual men. If you're interested in helping organize a National Black AIDS Awareness Day event in Washington DC, please let me know.

To learn more about the National Black AIDS Awareness Day, visit www.blackaidsday.org.