NEWS

Sistahs Getting Real About HIV

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LOS ANGELES -- National Coalition of 100 Black Women (NCWB), National Council of Negro Women and the Black AIDS Institute are hosting the 2nd Annual It’s All About M.E.E.! (Mobilization, Education & Empowerment) Sistahs Getting Real About HIV conference is scheduled from Feb. 7-11, 2007 at the Omni Hotel, 251 S. Olive St., Los Angeles.

Invited hosts include Byllye Avery, Donna Brazile, Cong. Donna Christian-Christensen (D-VI), Dr. M. Jocelyn Elders, Dr. Helene Gayle, Tawanna Gordon, Cookie Johnson, Cong. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), Cong. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Cong. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Calif.), Linda Johnson Rice, Bev Smith, Iyanla Vanzant, Cong. Diane Watson (D-Calif.), Pauletta Washington, and Cong. Maxine Waters (D-Calif..

The conference is sponsored by amfAR, MAC AIDS Fund and the U.S. Office on Women’s Health. The honorary host committee is Marcia and Michael Dyson, Dr. Dorothy Height, Jewell Jackson McCabe, Michelle and Marc Morial.

•AIDS remains one of the leading causes of death for African Americans in the United States. With regard to Black women in the U.S:
•AIDS is the leading cause of death for Black women between the ages of 24-34.
•Black women account for 69 percent of new HIV/AIDS cases among women.
•Black women are 19 times as likely as white women to have HIV/AIDS and 13 times more likely to die from the disease.

While race itself is not a risk factor for HIV infection, among African Americans, stigma, denial and the lack of culturally appropriate information and resources for support, all serve as barriers to early HIV testing, diagnosis and treatment. Involving Black women in education, empowerment and mobilization, and developing a network of women from diverse backgrounds that can speak “peer-to-peer” about the myths and the facts around HIV/AIDS is critical to ending the AIDS epidemic in Black communities.

WHAT TO EXPECT AT THE CONFERENCE
The purpose of this conference is to:
•Educate Black women across multiple sectors about the impact of HIV/AIDS in the Black community.
•Stimulate concrete and effective action to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among Black women in America.
Each day will focus on a different theme:
•Thursday is dedicated to treatment and prevention.
•Friday is dedicated those living with HIV/AIDS
•Saturday is dedicated to advocates.

The impact of HIV/AIDS on our community; women, men & youth. Health outcomes are influenced by many factors including genetics, behavior, use of health care services and the circumstances under which we live and work. While the pathways by which these factors exert their influence on health status are complex, they are all linked to the fabric of community. It’s All About M.E.E.! will focus on the critical role Black women play in raising awareness about he magnitude of HIV/AIDS in Black communities, and the need for reducing new infections, and increasing the number of Black people who know their HIV status.

Registration Selection
Registration:

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• Basic General Registration -- $100

• Basic Student Registration: $50

• VIP "All Access" Registration: $400
(Includes all registration materials, meal functions, receptions and Gala Dinner)

ADDITIONAL REGISTRATION OPTIONS
• It’s All About M.E.E.! Awards Gala on Friday, February 9, 2007 -- $100
• Closing Brunch on Sunday, February 11, 2007 -- $ 50
•I want to support the work of the Black AIDS Institute with a tax-deductible donation. -- $___________

Workshop Proposal Information

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Click here for workshop proposal forms.

It’s All About M.E.E.! seeks to provide the most challenging and rewarding learning experience possible for all attendees and presenters. You can help shape the conference content by submitting a proposal for a workshop. We are looking for a variety of turn-key workshop formats including roundtable discussions, panels, interactive presentations, individual lectures and group exercises.

Topics

We are interested in a wide array of HIV/AIDS and closely related topics affecting Black women across our three strategic areas: mobilization, education and empowerment. We are particularly interested in sessions that combine a programmatic focus on a HIV/AIDS or related health issue with operational or strategic approaches such as:

• Effective strategies for working with different community partners: schools, faith-based organizations, businesses, government and other community-based organizations
• Developing effective prevention messages for Black women
• Leadership development
• Evaluation strategies that work at the local level such as empowerment or participatory evaluation
• Replication of models that work
• Expanding utilization of HIV treatment services by Black women
• Increasing HIV testing among Black women
• Crossing stakeholder lines among women organizations to address social determinants of health (e.g., work with organizations focused on economic development, education or civic engagement)
• Building community coalitions and partnerships
• Community-driven efforts to change public policies
• Effective prevention campaigns
• How to develop social marketing campaigns that mobilize Black women
• Community-based participatory research Sample Topics

• How HIV relates to our relationships and health
• Stopping HIV/AIDS one community at a time
• Feeding our minds, body and soul
• Developing an effective HIV/AIDS prevention strategy for Black women
• Increasing utilization of HIV/AIDS treatment by Black women
• Designing and implementing effective HIV/AIDS programs for Black women organizations
• Creating a mass Black HIV/AIDS mobilization across all sectors in the Black community

Policy Guidelines

The conference planning committee is interested in providing a maximum of diversity in workshop subjects, form and structure. Individuals, groups as well as organizations are invited to sponsor or facilitate a workshop. Preference will be given to turn-key workshops that focus on mobilization, personal responsibility, personal power and taking action. Workshops that address practical and theoretical issues from Black female perspectives are preferred.

To the extent possible, workshops should seek to include practitioners, community leaders, academics, activists and individuals infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. We encourage interactive workshops were appropriate. We encourage you to design a learning experience that goes beyond the standard lecture format.

Your proposal should reflect the conference goals: to mobilize, educate and empower Black women to take action against HIV/AIDS. We will evaluate proposals based on how well a proposed workshop would allow participants to address cutting-edge issues facing HIV/AIDS in the Black community today.

You may submit more than one workshop proposal, but each proposal must be prepared and submitted separately.

The conference planning committee is excited to offer discounted room rates for all workshop presenters. However, please note that no compensation or honoraria will be provided. All workshop presenters will be responsible for their own air, hotel arrangements and ground transportation.

We Also Have A Dream

By Team TBTV

Martin Luther King fought and died for social justice, raising his voice for the rights of the oppressed.

A life of struggle to turn a dream into reality.

In 2006, over two million people died from a similar social injustice - tuberculosis.

TB is disease of poverty which decimates poor, overburdened and voiceless communities.

Back in 1963, scientists made TB a 'curable' disease with the development of a number of 'miracle' drugs. Yet while the wealthy countries breathed a sigh of relief, the killer bug has continued to plague the most marginalized around the world. Since 1963, when MLK delivered his 'I Have a Dream' speech in Washington, perhaps 100 million people have perished from TB, slowly and painfully, without many voices being raised to stop this terrible death toll rising each year.

We are a group of people with TB, TB-HIV, and MDR-TB (drug-resistant and usually fatal TB) who have come together to fight against the injustice of this disease.

We also have a dream in which people with tuberculosis and their communities can exercise their rights to access drugs, diagnostics and dignity. A dream of when those most affected can have a say in the health programs and services on which their lives depend, breaking a silence that has been institutionalized through the efforts to 'control' tuberculosis patients over the last fifty years.

Having dreams is easy, but for those on the bottom, turning them into reality requires sacrifice, sweat and struggle. For TB patients, long kept suffering in the shadows, silenced and neglected, the word is being spread "don't moan, organize."

TBTV.ORG is a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) run by and for people with tuberculosis, and we are pleased to announce the relaunch of our website as a tool for the TB Community - an amplifier of the voices of those who believe that two million preventable deaths is a global injustice that must be confronted, now.

Our principles of speaking out for justice and demanding accountable representation led us to being blacklisted and driven 'off-line' in 2005. Forced underground, we worked in the forge, and have crafted new tools for mobilizing our communities such as the Patients' Charter for Tuberculosis Care (PCTC), endorsed by the WHO as an essential element of the Stop TB Strategy.

Now, we're back again, louder and clearer, to turn dreams into realities. MLK has shown the way forward.

SACRAMENTO (Jan. 16, 2007) – The California Legislative Black Caucus will observe Feb. 7 as National Black HIV AIDS Awareness Day. Caucus Members will wear T-shirts that ask the question “Got AIDS? How do you know?” to floor session in an attempt to encourage African Americans to get screened for HIV. In addition, the Black Caucus has introduced HR 4: (National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day) to proclaim Feb. 7 as National Black HIV AIDS Day in the State of California.

Feb. 7, 2007 marks the seventh annual observance of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NBHAAD). This national mobilization effort is designed to encourage African Americans across the United States and Territorial Areas to get educated, get tested, get involved and get treated for HIV/AIDS, as it continues to devastate Black communities.

“It is imperative that we garner as much attention as possible on the HIV/AIDS epidemic,” states Majority Leader Assemblymember Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles), Vice-Chair of the Legislative Black Caucus. “On this day, we will join other Caucuses throughout the country to bring awareness to this issue that has become a serious health crisis in the Black community.”

“AIDS in America today is a Black Disease,” said Phill, Wilson, executive director of the Black AIDS Institute. “The AIDS epidemic in Black America will not end unless and until Black leaders take leadership on this issue. The Black AIDS Institute is proud to partner with Black state legislators across the country to build a national Black mobilization against the AIDS epidemic in our communities.”

“As the author of California’s African American HIV/AIDS Initiative AB 1142, and an individual who has a commitment to the health and safety of all people, I stand in solidarity with our nation in recognition of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day,” said Assemblymember Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Compton) Chair of the Legislative Black Caucus and Assembly Health Committee.

“More than half of all people living with HIV/AIDS and newly infected with HIV each year are African Americans,” said Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles). “Among women, Blacks account for two-thirds of all new infections. These facts represent an unprecedented crisis for Black America and we—all of us—have to do something to turn this disturbing trend around.”

“Shocking statistics from the State show that African Americans represent nearly 19 percent of all people living with AIDS in California, of which 80% are men,” commented Assemblymember Sandre Swanson (D-Oakland). “As a society, unless we control this growing pandemic, the crisis will be felt by every community, regardless of economic status.”

In California African Americans represent more than 6 percent of the total population while they represent approximately 13 percent of the U.S. population. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that Blacks accounts for almost half (49%) of the nation’s AIDS cases. According to the National Center for Health Statistics 2006 Report, HIV/AIDS is one of the top 10 leading causes of death for African Americans; and in the same year African Americans accounted for more than half (54 percent) of estimated new HIV infections in the United States.

The California Legislative Black Caucus Members include: Assemblymember Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Compton); Chair, Assemblymember Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles); Vice-Chair, Senator Edward Vincent (D-Inglewood); Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles); Assemblymember Laura Richardson (D-Long Beach); Assemblymember Wilmer Amina Carter (D-San Bernardino); Assemblymember Sandre Swanson (D-Oakland); Assemblymember Mike Davis (D-Los Angeles); and Assemblymember Curen Price (D-Inglewood).

Prevention

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Young black adults are far more likely to be infected with a sexually transmitted disease, including HIV, than young white adults, even when they engage in the same or even safer behavior, according to research released recently.

The study, published electronically by the American Journal of Public Health, found that African-Americans ages 18-26 years engaging in low-risk behavior – no sex in the past year and little or no alcohol and drug use – are nearly 25 times more likely to be infected than whites engaging in the same behavior. Young African-Americans who have few sex partners and low alcohol and drug use in a year are seven times more likely to be infected than whites with the behavior.

The survey of 8,706 participants found that young African-American adults generally engage less in risky behavior that could result in the transmission of STDs. Additionally, condom use among blacks is above 50 percent, while it’s only one-third for young whites. However, because the prevalence of STDs is so much higher among young African-American adults, the risk of coming in contact with someone with an STD is exponentially greater, according to study author Denise Hallfors, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at PIRE Chapel Hill Center.

“To combat this disparity, we need a much more aggressive public health strategy to reach all young black adults,” Hallfors said. “It’s not enough to recommend safe sex and testing for individuals; we need a media campaign aimed at the population that reduces the stigma and encourages young adults to be tested on an annual basis.”

She said that information, testing and treatment services should be offered through nontraditional venues – in addition to healthcare centers – such as community colleges, churches and beauty salons.

The reason why STDs are so prevalent among young African-Americans is not completely clear, Hallfors said. But, it’s likely related to the fact that sexual mating practices are largely segregated according to race, whites with whites and blacks with blacks. The low ratio of men to women among African Americans, resulting in a higher crossing of low-risk and high-risk partners, may be creating a “perfect storm” effect that results in very high STD and HIV rates, she said.

“Most STDs can be cured, and the spread of HIV can be reduced through prompt diagnosis and treatment,” Hallfors said. “We have the tools to greatly lower disease rates, but we’re not using them effectively in the young adult African American population.”

PIRE, or Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, is a Washington-based nonprofit public health research institute, funded mostly by federal science grants and contracts, with centers in eight U.S. cities. PIRE’s website, www.PIRE.org, offers original content about PIRE research and programs.