By Kim Tolley
CINCINNATI -- Mamie Harris could give lessons on the powers of faith and persuasion. Faced with the expiration of two federal grants that helped pay the operating funds for her faith based organization, Harris prayed for a miracle. A donor, who requested anonymity, answered her prayers by giving $30,000 to IV CHARIS (Compassionate Hearts Assisting Rebuilding, Instructing and Service), which provides HIV/STD testing, counseling and education to prisoners, the homeless and high school students. Although IV CHARIS receives a grant from and works collaboratively with the Cincinnati Health Department, the remaining funds weren’t enough to allow the organization to continue its work. Grateful, Harris told the donor how important the service is to the HIV/AIDS community in Cincinnati. By the time the conversation ended, Harris had an even bigger check for $160,000. “I poured my heart out,” Harris said, noting that IV CHARIS is the only faith-based organization in the Cincinnati area that provides HIV testing and counseling. “If it had not been for the donor, we would have had to stop. I wouldn’t have been able to pay rent and staff. It was a miracle from God.” The money will be used to sustain the program from now until the end of 2008 while Harris looks for other funding. The group will also hold fundraising events. According to Harris, it costs approximately $150,000 a year to run IV CHARIS, which serves 150 to 200 people a month. “We had been turned down for grants because although we’re faith based, we’re not a church,” she said Harris. “The donor’s gift is significant because it lets people know God does care.” Harris, who also promotes abstinence education in schools, works as a bridge between the black Christian church and those living with HIV/AIDS. Her involvement in HIV prevention began in 1987 when she and her late husband, Pastor Michael Harris, Sr., started a drug and alcohol recovery program at their church, Emmanuel New Mount Zion Christian Center. The Harrises eventually discovered that many of their clients also were infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. After learning about the correlation between acquiring the virus and some behaviors, substance abuse, Mamie Harris founded IV CHARIS in 2001. It was the first faith-based organization in the Cincinnati area certified by the Cincinnati Department of Health to conduct HIV/STD testing, counseling and education. “I decided to pursue it because of the numbers that I saw,” she said. “People believe [African Americans] are not affected by it. They don’t believe that we, as a race of people, engage in behavior that causes HIV.” African Americans comprise about 43 percent of the city population but are 52 percent of the HIV/AIDS population in Cincinnati and its surrounding areas. As she delved into her new project, Harris decided she wanted to bring the church and the HIV community together. It didn’t take long for her to encounter resistance from church members who were uncomfortable dealing with the issues of drug abuse, promiscuity and homosexuality. Potential clients also expressed skepticism. Today, Harris said the organization receives $1,000 a month from a local church. Another Cincinnati church also makes sporadic donations. “Mrs. Harris is very passionate and committed,” said Rochelle Shields, the chair of CHARIS’ board of directors. “You need to have that passion to do this kind of work. She’s well respected and has shown the community her sincerity. She’s not reaping any financial rewards but she feels this is what God wants her to do.” Shields, who has been involved with the Harris’ ministry for 15 years, said she believes that Mamie Harris’ efforts have made a definite impact between the two groups. “I think attitudes have shifted,” said Shields. “The churches never wanted to embrace anything like that. I think the change occurred because Mrs. Harris met with them, gave them information and knocked on doors. Pastors have begun requesting that she speak to their churches. In the African American community, that’s huge.” In 2005, Harris graduated from the African American HIV University, sponsored by the Black AIDS Institute in Los Angeles. In 2004, while Harris was attending classes on the West Coast, a personal tragedy brought the pastor’s wife closer to her gay classmates. “My husband died,” Harris said. “I was in California and people in the program nurtured me. Without them, I would have been a mess.” In their efforts to help the local community, Harris and her husband also worked with Dr. Judith Feinberg, a clinical researcher of HIV at the AIDS Clinical Trials Unit at the University of Cincinnati. “She has done really important work in Cincinnati,” said Feinberg. “She’s able to reach people who might not otherwise be tested.” According to Feinberg, the HIV infection rate in Cincinnati mirrors the national trend. In 2005, the national rate of HIV diagnosis (number of cases per 100,000 population) among black men was nearly seven times higher than that of white men, and more than twice that of black women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. African American women are also severely affected. Among black women in 2005, the rate was more than 20 times that of white women. Racial disparities in HIV diagnoses are particularly severe among young people. Overall, blacks made up half (51 percent) of all new HIV diagnoses between 2001 and 2005. But among youth aged 13 –24, blacks accounted for 61 percent of diagnoses. “The people that we care for are increasingly adolescents, African Americans and women,” Feinberg said. “It’s important that an African American brings [the information] to their attention because not everyone will listen to a white person like me.” Harris and Feinberg said they hope to encourage more African American participation in the clinical trials for new medications. “If only gay, white males are participating in the research, how do we know if the drugs work for black men and women?” Feinberg asked, noting that it is particularly difficult getting women, who are often the caretakers of their household, to participate. “We need a proportionate representation in the studies to be able to say it works for everyone.” When AIDS first came into the public’s awareness over 20 years ago, the faces most frequently depicted as suffering from the disease were white, male and homosexual. Through aggressive campaigns, the gay community emphasized the importance of safe sex and/or abstinence and saw a decrease in infections. Conversely, the rate of infections in the African-American community, particularly among women, went up. Experts have blamed the increase of HIV infection on a variety of causes. “I don’t know what causes us to continue to walk in a place where we’re doing it to ourselves,” Harris lamented. “It amazes me that people I encounter don’t know the risks. I run into a great number of African Americans who will not get tested because they don’t want to know. The reluctance may have a historical context. A number of African Americans cite the federal government’s 40 year involvement in the Tuskegee experiment where 400 black men suffering from advanced syphilis were deliberately misled about their condition. In 2005, a survey by the Rand Corporation and Oregon State University revealed that 43 percent of 500 respondents thought HIV was man made, while 53 percent thought a cure was being withheld from poor people. “I’ve come across some very intelligent people who believe the disease is an agent of the government,” said Harris. IV CHARIS has tested over 10,000 people since it was founded and counsels approximately 200 people a month. Of the 1,085 people tested this year, four learned they were positive. They were referred to a program run by Feinberg, which provides care to patients with HIV. “People still think you can catch the disease by coughing on someone,” said Harris. “We’re attempting to enlighten the community so we can remove the stigma of this disease.”