"Drive Out AIDS" and Win a New Car!

Black AIDS Institute's motto is "Our People, Our Problem, Our Solutions!" With regards to HIV/AIDS, this has never been truer than it is today. HIV/AIDS is more of a people-of-color disease than ever before. When 63 percent of people living with HIV in this country are Black or Brown and we represent 65 percent of new infections, clearly HIV is our problem.

But financial support to fight HIV/AIDS is shrinking. With sequestration and a federal government that gets more dysfunctional every day, there are fewer public dollars per capita fighting HIV/AIDS than ever before. And every year a new foundation leaves the field.

If we are going to survive, we are going to have to turn to our community. We are going to need to save ourselves.

The Black AIDS Institute is proud to announce a new community-driven effort to fight HIV/AIDS in our communities. In partnership with Car Pros Kia, a dealership in Carson, California, on World AIDS day, we are launching "Drive Out AIDS," a raffle to raise money to end AIDS in our communities. Car Pros Kia is donating a brand new 2014 Kia Forte to the winner of the "Drive Out AIDS" raffle.

Beginning on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2013, you can enter the raffle by going to www.AIDSraffle.org. The raffle tickets cost only $25.00 each. Or increase your odds and save money by purchasing three opportunities to win for $70 or five for $100. And here's the best thing: Because of the generosity of Car Pros Kia, 100 percent of the raffle's proceeds go directly to fighting HIV/AIDS—getting people into treatment and helping them stay in care, educating people about new scientific breakthroughs to prevent infection, and building the infrastructure we need to end the epidemic in our communities.

This year's World AIDS day theme is "Getting to Zero". How do we, as a Black community, get to zero? How do we get to an AIDS-free generation in our communities, when the very organizations charged with leading the charge are in danger?

Calvin Rolark, the founder of the United Black Fund in Washington DC said, "Nobody can save..., but us." Here is a chance for you to do your part—and you might just win a new car in the process. It doesn't get any better than that.

In this issue we continue our series about the Fellows in the African American HIV University's Science and Treatment College. Our friend Linda Villarosa reports on the highlights from the AIDS Vaccine Conference in Barcelona. Dr. Ron Valdisseri provides us with an overview of the initiatives funded by HHS's 2013 Secretary's Minority AIDS Initiative Fund. He also tells us about the government's update on the 2012 action plan for the prevention, care and treatment of viral hepatitis. Finally new research shows that being single, divorced or separated raises the risk of death from HIV in the United States—but only for men. And there was no information about men in committed partnerships.

Finally, look for my opinion piece on NYTimes.com beginning this Thursday and for my appearance on CCTV America's "The Heat," this Saturday, November 30th, at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time, where I will discuss the global AIDS epidemic.

Yours in the struggle,

Phill