A Review of World AIDS Day

From the Lake County News-Sun

Alexian Brothers AIDS Ministry was lucky enough to participate in three World AIDS Day events this year. Events honoring World AIDS Day are held across the country and the world, and they offer an opportunity for communities to come together and support those who have been affected by HIV/AIDS. In Chicago, Bonaventure House joined with local churches and community organizations for two prayer services.

One, held at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, was lead by Rev. Pat Lee, the pastor of St. Joseph’s and Immaculate Conception churches. Rev. Pat Lee is the moderator for gay and lesbian outreach for the Chicago Archdiocese. Rev. Pat Lee and Joe Murray, a parishioner of St. Joseph’s and organizer for the World AIDS Day prayer service, were interviewed by the Chicago Tribune about their participation in World AIDS Day and the Catholic Church’s response to the AIDS epidemic. Rev. Pat Lee is quoted as saying, “Our prayer service is for a cure…It’s a worldwide epidemic that we want to keep on people’s minds.” You can read the Chicago Tribune article here.

The second prayer service was held at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. The service included a performance of ‘Aus Tiefer Not/From Darkest Night’. The performance followed a three-part theme where Bonaventure House residents told their stories in three parts, with a musical selection played in between.

World AIDS Day: Stand Against Stigma

A World AIDS Day event was also held in Lake County called Stand Against Stigma: World AIDS Day 2011. Stand Against Stigma had over 200 attendees. The community dinner held beforehand presented an excellent forum for friends and acquaintances to connect and created a real sense of togetherness. Community members took part in the event as speakers, singers, dancers and candle lighters. Possibly the most touching moment of the evening came at the end of the program. The Wish Ceremony involved members of the audience stating their wishes for the coming year and lighting and placing a candle on the AIDS ribbon at the front of the auditorium.

Karen Kowal, Director of The Harbor in Waukegan, was interviewed in the Lake County News-Sun about World AIDS Day. “The most powerful thing about World AIDS Day in Lake County is that people can be around other people who are not only HIV positive, but people who are are supportive of the HIV positive community. It’s important to see there’s a network of support. People really can gain strength from that.” You can read the Lake County News-Sun article here.

The White House on World AIDS Day

President Obama spoke at a World AIDS Day event hosted by Join(RED) in Washington, DC. The President spoke about ‘The Beginning of the End of AIDS,’ the extension of the White House’s plan to combat AIDS. This renewal and reinvestment calls for increases in prevention, working together and sharing responsibility in the fight against AIDS, increasing access to care for Americans living with HIV/AIDS, reducing new HIV infections, and changing policy to reflect these new goals. You can read the ‘The Beginning of the End of AIDS’ fact sheet here.

In his speech on Thursday, President Obama had this to say: “This fight is not over. Not for the 1.2 million Americans who are living with HIV right now. Not for the Americans who are infected every day. This fight is not over for them, it’s not over for their families, and as a consequence, it can’t be over for anybody in this room — and it certainly isn’t over for your President.”

Alexian Brothers AIDS Ministry CEO Michelle Wetzel echoed this proclamation. “It isn’t over for the residents, staff, board and volunteers of Alexian Brothers AIDS Ministry – not by a long shot.  We’re in this until the end.  We hope you will join us in the fight to end AIDS in America.”

Several community organizations have already joined us in our fight against HIV/AIDS. We would like to take this time to thank the following organizations we worked with for our World AIDS Day events this year: St. Joseph and Immaculate Conception Catholic Churches, AGLO Chicago, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Lake County Department of Health, Catholic Charities of Lake County, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. – Waukegan Alumni Chapter, YWCA of Lake County, First Congregational United Church of Christ, and the many individuals who dedicated their time to make these events a success.

World AIDS Day 2011

This Thursday, December 1, marks the 23rd observance of World AIDS Day, a global day of awareness for the epidemic that affects so many people across the world.  The focus of World AIDS Day events range from advocacy and education to vigils and prayer. Regardless of focus, World AIDS Day events bring people together to face HIV/AIDS in unity. Each year, an international theme is selected to guide World AIDS Day events and to be the focus for the following year in the fight against HIV/AIDS. This year’s theme is Getting to Zero, meaning the goal is no new infections, no discrimination and no AIDS-related deaths.

Alexian Brothers AIDS Ministry is participating in three World AIDS Day events this year. Two prayer services will be held at St. Joseph’s Church and St. Peter’s Church in Chicago. These events will include choir and spoken work performances, guest speakers and prayer. In Waukegan, Alexian Brothers AIDS Ministry is participating in the event Stand Against Stigma: World AIDS Day 2011. This event took the theme of Getting to Zero and focused on eliminating stigma against HIV/AIDS in Lake County and beyond. Stand Against Stigma will include dinner, singing and dance performances, a panel of speakers on the topic of HIV/AIDS stigma, and prayer. More information about these events can be found at http://www.bonaventurehouse.org/events. All events are free and open to the public.

Follow Alexian Brothers Bonaventure House on Twitter and Facebook to receive updates and photos from the World AIDS Day events. Check here for a full recap of the events.

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LaShelle’s Story: No More Chasing the Dragon

On December 1st, 2010, LaShelle, a resident of Bonaventure House, spoke at a World AIDS Day prayer service hosted by St Joseph’s Parish in partnership with Alexian Brothers Bonaventure House.

Hello, my name is LaShelle. I grew up on the west side of Chicago. I am one of many addicts in my family. I have been an addict for 28 years of my life. I am now a recovering addict with 23 months of continuous sobriety. I was in and out of jail for a majority of my adult life. I did not raise my kids because I was more interested in chasing the dragon. The dragon, for those folks not familiar with addiction and recovery, is the feeling you get the first time you get high and all the pain goes away – my life was devoted to chasing the dragon.

The reason I was more interested in getting high and staying high was because of the pain and mental anguish of being raped. My kids saw me high all the time, but I kept telling them, “I’ll stop one day” but my kids grew up and their momma was still getting high. The last time that I went to jail, I said “that’s it, I’m not doing this anymore” because I was looking at some big time in jail. It was during this last time when I went to jail that I found out I was HIV positive. I knew then and continue to believe that I cannot return to the life of using drugs. So I went into treatment and did what was asked of me to stay sober. After completing treatment I applied and was accepted to Bonaventure House. Since I’ve been there, one year this month, I have grown in many ways I never could have imagined. They have helped me a lot – they showed me how to be honest, respectful, and independent. They helped me to enroll in school so that I can get my GED. They helped me do all the things I wouldn’t do for myself if I was still on the street.

When my kids saw that I was real, my little girl wrote a paper during drug awareness week and the paper is about drugs and me. I would like to close by reading that letter.

Drug Awareness

Drug awareness week means a lot to me because I can personally relate to drug abuse. I mean not speaking of myself and using drugs, but a very close friend and relative of mine – my mother, LaShelle. My mother was a drug addict for many years and I thought this thing would never stop. Day after day I cried to myself, “When will my mother stop doing this to me and my brothers?” I would ask myself why she would do this to us. As I am her only daughter, I missed out on having a mother teach me to be a woman or do mother-daughter things with me. When she was using, I just saw her when I saw her. Through all of this though, there was never a day that I did not love my mom. I still defended her honor when people teased me about my mom being a “crack head,” I still told myself repeatedly “she’ll get clean.”

Then as I got older, my mom was still living her life and she had been through so much, moving from house to house (if not staying on the street), going to jail for months at a time, then the last time she went, she told herself and her kids no more of this lifestyle. Then she told us something that really hurt me because of the way she put it. She said, “Would y’all turn yo back on your mother?” The answer was of course, no. So she finally got herself clean and sober and it was then that she told us she had been diagnosed with HIV. I cried a lot of nights thinking about this. How and why did it have to happen to my mama? But she told us, “Don’t worry, I’m gonna be just fine.” I didn’t believe it when she proved it to me. She has been sober now for over a year. She takes care of herself. She keeps active and she could care less what other people say about her.

I am so proud of my mom! I never thought she would come through for us but she did and I hope she continues the good work!

Sharon’s Story

Sharon recently shared her story at a World AIDS Day tribute at Saint Peter’s Episcopal Church.

My name is Sharon Ryan and I want to start by thanking everybody for coming out tonight in support of those living with HIV/AIDS. I’m a resident at Alexian Brothers Bonaventure House, which is a two year, supportive transitional living environment that helps those who suffer with this chronic illness and are at risk of homelessness. I’m here to share some of my story. I’m here to tell you how my life was, how it became, and how it is now.  I need to reveal first of all though, that it’s hard for me to speak about myself in front of people. It’s hard for me to speak about anything, actually, in front of a large group of people. But since this subject matter is so close to my heart and since I’ve been personally impacted by this disease, I felt a need to overcome my fear of speaking and give this a shot. I also have some very persuasive people in my life who keep telling me I’ll do fine, so without further ado…

I was born and raised in Chicago and had a somewhat normal upbringing. I was taught right from wrong, good friends from bad, how to stand up for myself and how to avoid peer pressure. I was taught all about drugs and alcohol and sexually transmitted diseases. I knew my brain on drugs looked like a scrambled egg, I had met Officer Friendly several times, and I attended the mandatory sex education classes at my grammar school. Somehow, I still fell prey to the evils lurking out there, luring our youth into its life-altering grip.

I let my life slowly slip into the gutter, sooner than later not caring what became of me or my future. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the choices I made as a teenager would affect my life and my family’s lives for years to come. I dropped out of my freshman year of college and turned to a life of addiction. I did whatever I had to in order to feed that addiction, no matter who I had to hurt along the way and definitely not realizing, or maybe not even caring, that I was hurting myself.

In September, 2005, I received an AIDS diagnosis. Although I hadn’t been living the healthiest lifestyle, I was still shocked by the news and went completely numb for quite a while. My ignorance of the illness caused me to believe I would die, that the diagnosis might as well have been a death sentence. Over the next two years, I continued to live a completely destructive lifestyle, making some of the worst decisions of my life, all the while believing it definitely didn’t matter now because I was about to die anyway. I had been prescribed medicine at the time of my diagnosis, but I hadn’t been taking it. I weighed 96 pounds. My hair began to fall out from malnutrition. I was sleeping in parks and on the El trains. I had completely given up, and then my life was saved when I finally wound up in jail. I wish I knew what happened in there, because I would bottle it up and share it with anyone who’s going through what I was. But I had had enough. I finally decided that I couldn’t continue on like I had been- that my life was worth living and fighting for. And then I found Bonaventure House.

I had already made the decision to change, to become a productive member of society, but I had no idea how I was going to do it. I was homeless, I had this new criminal background, I hadn’t worked in years, my credit was horrible, and the list goes on and on. Luckily, I had the support of my family, but even they didn’t know how to help me. So I moved into Bonaventure House, somewhat skeptical, yet still hopeful. As open as I was to change, I was still stubborn. I wasn’t so receptive to having someone direct my life, but I had already made such a mess of it myself, I was willing to try a new perspective.  I found myself surrounded by peers dealing with the same issues that I was. I found myself surrounded by a caring, dedicated, and encouraging staff that were more knowledgeable than I was.

They offered a variety of services such as HIV support groups, occupational therapy, spiritual care, substance abuse counseling, and case management, as well as extracurricular activities to make sure that residents maintain a balance in our lives. I was given an individualized service plan, a personalized guide for me, based on my needs and wants, my personality, my goals, and my beliefs, with just a smidgen of regulation set forth by people who knew better than I did. I wasn’t just taught how to live again, I was shown. If it wasn’t for the open-door policy of every single staff member there and for my stern, yet supportive case manager, I wouldn’t be the strong, ambitious person I am today.

I’ve lived there for over a year and have less than that to go before I achieve my goal of becoming self-sufficient. I’m successfully completing the terms of my probation to be in full compliance with the courts. I’m working with lawyers recommended by staff to help fix my credit. I have a job, doing something I’m absolutely passionate about. I’m in college, determined to turn that job into a career. Most importantly, I’m in full control of my health, maintaining my medication and my relationships with my health-care providers to ensure that I’m alive and well to experience the success that I’m working so hard to attain. Four years ago I was convinced that AIDS had put me on my deathbed. Today I know that it was my ignorance and apathy that almost killed me.

I will forever be grateful to Bonaventure House and to people like each one of you for offering the support that changed a scared, unsure girl into a confident, optimistic woman. And on behalf of the people living with HIV/AIDS who are lost and about to find their way, I thank you.

AIDS Ends When _____ Begins

Here are some words our community came up with to complete the sentence: “AIDS ends when ____ begins.”

In preparation for World AIDS Day on December 1st, we are encouraging our friends, family, peers and leaders to think about the impact of HIV/AIDS in our communities.  Though great progress has been made in the last 20 years, we still have a long way to go in creating awareness, preventing transmission, treating, and caring for those who are affected by the HIV virus.

In the words of President Obama, spoken on World AIDS Day in 2007,

“We are all sick because of AIDS – and we are all tested by this crisis. It is a test not only of our willingness to respond, but of our ability to look past the artificial divisions and debates that have often shaped that response. When you go to places like Africa and you see this problem up close, you realize that it’s not a question of either treatment or prevention – or even what kind of prevention – it is all of the above. It is not an issue of either science or values – it is both. Yes, there must be more money spent on this disease. But there must also be a change in hearts and minds; in cultures and attitudes. Neither philanthropist nor scientist; neither government nor church, can solve this problem on their own – AIDS must be an all-hands-on-deck effort.” (For the whole text of the speech, go to http://aidsactivist.blogspot.com/2007/08/barack-obama-on-hivaids.html)

We want to make World AIDS Day 2009 an all-hands-on-deck effort!  To see a list of ABAM’s sponsored events in Chicago and Waukegan on December 1st, visit http://www.bonaventurehouse.org/WorldAIDSDay2009.  All events are free and open to the public, and we hope to see you there!

Feel free to add a comment with your own answer to “AIDS ends when ___ begins.”