Here’s a sentence I didn’t enjoy reading:
Of the 48 U.S. counties with the highest prevalence rates for HIV infections, 25 of them are in Georgia,
It’s from a Los Angeles Times story about an HIV/AIDS report released today by the National Minority Quality Forum.
I’ve been trying to read the report for several hours, but NMQF’s web site is overloaded.
(photo by Sarah Harms)
Pausing between praises at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Old Fourth Ward, the Rev. Dennis Meredith stood before his packed and passionate congregation on Sunday, the day after World AIDS Day, opened his mouth and took an HIV test.
Meredith’s aim: to shatter the stigma associated with a disease that has hit African-Americans, especially in Fulton County, devastatingly hard. African-Americans make up 74 percent of HIV cases in Georgia, according to state health reports, with most cases stemming from men having sex with other men. After the service, volunteers handed out condoms and administered free HIV tests to interested parishioners. Meredith’s church has adopted an open-arms policy to gays and transgendered people in an effort to change the church’s traditional role as, what Meredith considers, “a vehicle of shame.â€
“If we collectively do our job as pastors and ministers, we can turn this thing around,†Meredith said. “If we eliminate the shame, we can do so much. But if you don’t do radical stuff, nothing’s going to be done.â€
Spelman College has joined forces with Global Fund’s (PRODUCT) RED campaign to help African-American women understand the threat of HIV/AIDS. The (PRODUCT) RED campaign is known for partnering with corporate giants such as Gap and Apple to raise a slew of money to help stop the epidemic.
As part of Spelman’s Empowe(RED) campaign, the college will host students from an Atlanta high school for a workshop on HIV/AIDS on Thursday. Following the workshop, Spelman will take the women to an event sponsored by Magic Johnson, the famed basketball player who has lived with AIDS for more than a decade. Johnson will be in town to talk about the rapid rise of HIV/AIDS in the African-American community.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, African-Americans are 10 times more likely to contract HIV than whites. Here in Georgia, about 66 percent of individuals with HIV/AIDS are black, even though blacks comprise just 30 percent of the population.
For more info on how you can participate in Spelman’s Empowe(RED) campaign, visit www.theservicecoalition.com. For more info on Magic Johnson’s event, visit www.istandwithmagic.com.
