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Groups Face the Challenges of HIV/AIDS
Carolina Times
03.01.03
By Boyd Randy
Special to the NNPA
If you want something done right, do it yourself.
That could be the mantra for many of today's black organizations dealing with
the HIV/AIDS crisis in the black America. Because while the Bush Administration
and much of Washington, D.C., is preoccupied with Saddam Hussein, African-American
groups across the United States have mobilized in another war threatening to decimate
another of the country's precious resources.
Black Americans are being diagnosed with AIDS in staggering and disproportionate
numbers. Black women represent over 60 percent of new HIV infections in the United
States each year. Far more young Black men and women are testing positive for
the AIDS virus than their White counterparts. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is as prevalent
in the African-American community as the air surrounding it. Which is exactly
why many national non-profit groups are hard at work. Here are some of them.
The Balm In Gilead
For more than a decade, this organization has been preaching about AIDS to Black
churches. The group's name comes from the biblical Book of Jeremiah (8:22), which
refers to healing in a time of sickness. The name is also the title of an African-American
spiritual that is sung as an expression of faith and comfort. Recognizing that
traditional methods of promoting AIDS awareness might not work among Blacks. The
Balm developed new ways of making the message relevant, including providing churches
with training, networking and education, and operating the Black Church HIV/AIDS
National Technical Assistance Center in conjunction with the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. Another important facet of The Balm's work is the Black
Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS, which engages more than 5,000 churches
in a week of prayer and educational activities. The event, March 2-8, is based
on traditional church revivals and emphasizes compassion in healing the ravages
of AIDS on the community.
The Balm's approach puts AIDS awareness into a Black church context, as exhibited
through publications such as The Black Church HIV/AIDS Education & Prevention
Guide and Urgent! What Black Pastors Need To Know About Drug Abuse and AIDS. The
group also provides educational videos, including the Emmy Award-winning Jessye
Norman Sings for the Healing of AIDS, which features Maya Angelou, Whoopi Goldberg,
Elton John, Toni Morrison and other celebrities. During a recent World AIDS Day,
the Balm sponsored a program at St. Marks United Methodist Church in Harlem, N.Y.,
with a live satellite downlink to churches in Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit and
Miami. Former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders delivered the keynote address.
The Balm's efforts have not gone unnoticed. The group is the only AIDS service
organization endorsed by all major historically Black church denominations and
caucuses, including the eight-million-member National Baptist Convention USA and
the four-million-member African Methodist Episcopal Church. These endorsements
give the organization the potential to bring AIDS information to more than 20
million Black Americans through their religious affiliations, important since
approximately 80 percent of all Blacks in the country belong to a church.
The National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS
Founded in 1987, BLCA is the oldest and largest non-profit organization of its
kind in the United States. Think of the group as a sort of centrl station for
AIDS networking. In come Black community leaders from all walks of life: clergy
members, elected officials, medical practitioners, businessmen and women, social
policy experts, media representatives. Out go empowered, informed and connected
movers and shakers who take vital information, resources and hope to local communities.
Those resources help to keep the epidemic in the forefront of people's minds and
proliferate at events such as health expos with free HIV testing and community
forums.
The group has done extensive work with the Congressional Black Caucus, the National
Medical Association, and the U.S. Surgeon General. The result has seenleading
African-American professionals in medicine, religion, government, social welfare,
media/entertainment, business and philanthropy coming together to develop effective
and sustainable plans to help drive the fight against the epidemic.
Another way the BLCA does battle against the disease is through the Presidential
Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. The council provides advice, information and recommendations
to the White House and its cabinet regarding programs and policies intended to
promote effective prevention of HIV and advance research on AIDS. Though the role
of the council is solely advisory in nature, the president receives a written
report of all its meetings. Through the BLCA, African Americans and other people
of color have gained greater inclusion in local and national policy, planning,
research and clinical trials.
The Black AIDS Institute
Formerly the African American AIDS Policy and Training Institute, the institute
was founded in May 1999, and is the first African-American HIV/AIDS think tank
in the United States. The group's goal is to reduce HIV/AIDS health disparities
between people of African descent and other ethnic groups by engaging Black institutions
and individuals in productive efforts to combat the pandemic in black communities.
With "Our People, Our Problem, Our Solution!" as its motto, the outfit's
wingspan includes influential and groundbreaking efforts in policy, training and
dissemination of information.
Their NIA Plan, a National Plan to Stop HIV/AIDS in African-American communities,
collaborated with government agencies on all levels, universities, community-based
AIDS organizations, and health care providers to formulate and disseminate policy
proposals. The institute's flagship training program, the African American HIV
University, continues to increase the quantity and quality of HIV education in
Black communities by training and supporting African-American peer educators.
The group's International Community Treatment and Science Workshop is training
and mentoring program designed to help people living with HIV or working with
community-based organizations and non-governmental AIDS organizations gain access
to information presented at scientific to traditional African-American institutions,
elected officials and churches that are interested in developing effective programs.
The challenges of preventing and dealing with HIV/AIDS may seem insurmountable
to most. But don't tell that to groups like the Balm, BLCA or the institute. Besides,
they're probably too busy doing something about the crisis in the Black community
to listen to the doomsayers.
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