August 1, 2008
STANDING AGAINST AIDS IN THE SOUTH
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Last month, I attended the Southern Access Summit, and it was a disturbing reminder of how the South has been ravaged by the AIDS epidemic. Even though the South is only 36 percent of the U.S. population, 52 percent of people with HIV live in the South. Of the 20 states with the highest rates of new HIV diagnoses, nine are in the South. Southern states comprise 65 percent of AIDS cases among rural populations.
Now is the time to take action. Until every level of the U.S. government systematically addresses HIV and AIDS in the South, the disease will continue to ravage not just the South, but poor and rural areas throughout the country. The lack of basic services and prevention in rural areas is too important to be addressed in a piecemeal funding process or by simply throwing a few more federal dollars our way. What we need is a long-term plan to provide evidence-based prevention and access to quality care while diffusing the stigma that undermines these efforts.
In Mississippi, for instance, it doesn't matter how much money the federal government sends, the powers that be aren't putting the money where it needs to go. We have great clinics, but not enough doctors to write prescriptions. We have $6 million federal dollars going to abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education that is failing our youth. They are experiencing rising rates of STDs, including HIV. We have more than $2 million in HOPWA dollars, but we don't have the political will to create long-term housing.
What can we do in the face of such intimidating challenges? One place we can start is The Stand Against AIDS. The Stand Against AIDS, a multi-arm, cross-country September advocacy event sponsored by the Campaign to End AIDS, is demanding that the next U.S. president take significant steps toward creating a national AIDS plan in the first 100 days of his presidency. While the president and the federal government alone cannot be asked to shoulder the blame for the epidemic, leadership at the highest level of the country is essential for creating a blueprint to end AIDS.
The time is now
The Stand Against AIDS will undoubtedly get people's attention. In the days leading up to the first debate between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain in Oxford, Mississippi, on September 26, hundreds of people will ride in caravans departing from all across the country. Along the way they will hold events to build support for a national AIDS strategy and call attention to local AIDS issues. In a "walking" caravan, activists will walk 208 miles from Jackson to Oxford to highlight the toll of the epidemic in Mississippi and the South. The march has been endorsed by numerous civil rights groups, including state chapters of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the NAACP.
If you were as disturbed as I was by the devastating statistics highlighted at the Southern Access Summit, I hope you'll consider getting involved in the Stand Against AIDS. It's a precious chance to make our demand for a serious national AIDS strategy to the presidential hopefuls when the entire world is watching. We need riders, volunteers, and even if you can't make it to Oxford, you can help out when a caravan hits your home city. Hopefully, soon the numbers coming out of the Southern Access Summit will be a cause not for sadness, but celebration.
For more information go to c2ea or call 1-877-ENDAIDS (363-2437) or contact Valencia Robinson at robinson@aidsactionms.org or (601) 944-1403.