FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For Additional Information Contact:
Angela Johnson, BaumanCurry & Co. Public Relations
(323) 525-0559 x226

Churches Fight AIDS Discrimination with Compassion
-2003 Data Show Blacks Disproportionately Infected with HIV/AIDS-

Los Angeles (November 18, 2003)– African Americans in California continue to be disproportionately infected with HIV/AIDS, according to the most recent surveillance reports released by the California Department of Health Services, Office of AIDS. Of all the HIV/AIDS cases reported in California through October 31, 2003, African Americans accounted for 21 percent of HIV and 18 percent of AIDS cases. However, African Americans constitute only 7 percent of California’s population.

To focus attention on this disproportion, and to underscore that some of the most painful symptoms of HIV/AIDS are not physical, but include fear, shame, ignorance, intolerance and injustice, Black church leaders in California are joining international efforts to promote World AIDS Day 2003. Hurtful, misguided judgments make the theme of this year's worldwide public awareness effort, "Live and Let Live," all the more timely and profound.

World AIDS Day has been commemorated around the globe on December 1 since 1988. It celebrates progress made in the battle against the epidemic and brings into focus challenges that lie ahead. UNAIDS—the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS—has noted that people who have or are suspected of having HIV may be evicted from their homes by fearful family members, divorced by their ashamed spouses and suffer physical violence or even murder. The stigma attached to HIV/AIDS can often extend to the next generation, placing an undue emotional burden on children who may already be dealing with the death of their parents resulting from AIDS. The World AIDS Day campaign focuses on eliminating stigma and discrimination, the major obstacles to HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention, and care.

The Statewide HIV/AIDS Church Advisory Board is promoting this year’s theme in solidarity with other world leaders who are facing the problem head on. Their tool of choice is Healing Begins Here: A Pastor’s Guidebook for HIV/AIDS Ministry through the Church. A total of 2,800 guidebooks have been distributed, according to a recent preliminary evaluation report compiled by the California Department of Health Services, Office of AIDS. Clergy leaders in California participated in an evaluation of Healing Begins Here and enthusiastically embraced it as a useful educational tool in the fight to prevent HIV/AIDS in the state. Clergy and community leaders who received the guidebook were asked to complete a survey designed to gauge its effectiveness. According to the preliminary report, results of the evaluation characterized Healing Begins Here as “very helpful,” “concise, well-written and to the point.”

Using Healing Begins Here as their guide, the Statewide HIV/AIDS Church Advisory Board is preparing for World AIDS Day by mentoring churches in their respective regions. Through their mentoring efforts, the Church Advisory Board is showing churches and non-profit organizations that work with churches, various ways to observe World AIDS Day. Some recommendations include delivering sermons that espouse compassion for those living with and affected by HIV/AIDS, offering confidential HIV counseling and testing to the community on church property, handing out flyers explaining how HIV/AIDS is contracted, distributing Healing Begins Here Quiz Cards that help dispel myths about HIV/AIDS, and other actions that promote awareness and prevention of this disease.

The Statewide HIV/AIDS Church Advisory Board, a volunteer committee, has worked in partnership with the California Department of Health Services, Office of AIDS to develop and distribute the innovative Healing Begins Here guidebook and educational companion materials. Since its inception in 2000—launched with the participation of more than 75 African American church leaders—training sessions on HIV/AIDS and the use of the Guidebook have been conducted throughout the state.

Churches, and non-profit organizations that work with churches, who are looking for more ideas on how to observe World AIDS Day may receive an e-mail containing the Healing Begins Here Church Kit by sending an e-mail to guidebook@baumancurry.com; and to receive a copy of Healing Beings Here: A Pastor’s Guidebook for HIV/AIDS Ministry through the Church, interested organizations may call Martin Luther King Legacy Association at (323) 290-4100 or BaumanCurry & Co. at (323) 525-0559. A copy of the Healing Begins Here may also be down loaded for free from www.arkofrefuge.org.