HIV & AiDS Report

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Comments

[Vernon Palmer]

Please visit the "CURE" for hiv/aids at www.ambushcuresaids.homestead.com thank you.

[Wayne Turner]

The biggest gap in DC's HIV prevention efforts is the lack of access to materials and basic information. Free condoms and water-based lubricants have largely disappeared from area Gay bars and clubs. DC public schools restrict access for young people to just one condom per month. There is no HIV prevention information, let alone jars of condoms, in social service intake locations such as the Income Maintenance Center at 645 H Street NE. Public service announcements urge people to know their status without mentioning basic steps to avoid HIV infection such as avoiding needle sharing and using condoms consistently and correctly. In neighborhood corner stores, a three-pack of condoms can cost $2.75, and are often stored in locked display cases or behind the counter. However, a case of condoms cost at little at $85 for one thousand condoms. Given the considerable amount of federal and local tax dollars spent on HIV prevention activities, there is simply no excuse for not making these essential life-saving materials widely available and easily accessible.

[David Mariner]

Thanks for posting this Wayne. Another thing that I felt the Fenty plan was missing is ACCOUNTABILITY.

Looking at the crisis in DC. We are not falling behind due to a lack of money (in fact, we never seem able to spend all the money allocated). We are not falling behind for lack of politicians who basically say the right things. The more I look at the situation, the more I believe that 9 times out of 10 the problem is ACCOUNTABILITY.

I would like to see

1. GREATER ACCOUNTABILITY FOR ALL AIDS SERVICE ORANIZATIONS (ASOs). Once an ASO get's a grant, AHPP needs to make sure the work is done. I'd like to think that under Marsha Martin, AHPP is moving in this direction, but as recently as last month the DC Inspector General for Audits turned up (yet another) agency that was getting funded but not doing the work.

2. FOCUS ON PROGRAMS THAT HAVE A MEASURABLE IMPACT on the epidemic. Without naming names, I will just say since I've been doing this work in DC, I've heard about some programs DC is funding that I find questionable.

3. NO MORE NON COMPETITIVE GRANTS. Going forward, to get money from AHPP, agencies should always go through a competitive process where the best ideas and programs are funded. Nobody should get money simply because they are an ASO in DC.

4. BETTER PAY FOR LOCAL HIV/AIDS WORKERS. We can't expect any local AIDS Service organization to perform at 100% when staff turnover rates are as high as they are now. We live in a city where an employee at a local ASO can easily jump ship and go to a National ASO, A consulting firm, a pharmaceutical company. This happens all the time.

That's just for starters .... but I didn't see this in the Fenty plan either.

David Mariner
www.fightHIVinDC.org

[Larry Bryant]

Despite the increasing numbers of infections and deaths due to HIV/AIDS, particularly with Black and Brown women, poor and marginalized people, and gay men (1 in 7 Black men are HIV positive), our DC goverment and health department has not adequately funded care and services that would work to prevent new infections or care for people who are. In fact, the funding has disappeared all together in some parts of the city.

In the last year we have settled for a misguided, poorly planned, and sadly executed testing campaign that not only fell way short of expectations, but even if it did work as planned, would have significantly increased the known HIV/AIDS infected population into an area already short on services and care providers.

We need visible leadership from the HIV/AIDS community. Too often decisions are deliberated and decided upon without participation from the affected community. To directly and effectively combat stigma towards HIV/AIDS, which is the single most paralyzing factor to addressing this epidemic anywhere, we need visible and relevant leadership roles given to people living with the disease. We also need more outspoken and bold participation from our city's religious, civic, and political leaders.

We have a new generation of DC area youth who have lived in world where HIV/AIDS always existed. If we can develop a viable plan with a transparant process that includes participation and input from all affected communities with enforced accountability from top to bottom, we can also end this epidemic in this generation.

In the 21 years as an HIV positive, Black and straight native Washingtonian, almost 8,000 people have died of this preventable and treatable disease. Many of those people died locked in their homes, away from their families and loved ones, seperated from their churches, or "fired" from their jobs. We need to demand more from our community, our government, and our leaders that this doesn't persist.

Larry Bryant
Housingworks/DC
www.housingworks.org
www.campaigntoendaids.org