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December 4, 2009 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 5
Taskforce honors six for 'Voices Against the Silence'
by Steve LouZOS
Cleveland-Four individuals and two organizations were honored this week for raising their voices to help end of the silence of HIV and AIDS in northeast Ohio.
Tami Sanderson, Community activist working against "Abstinence Only Until Marriage" curriculum in Loveland public schools.
Alan Taege, M.D., Founder and director, ROBERT OLAYAS (2)
organizations we honor today have broken that silence in so many dramatic ways. They are our colleagues, our friends, our families-our heroes."
The Voices Against the Silence awards have been presented annually since 1999 to organizations and individuals whose voices have been raised to bring attention to the often silent battle against HIV and AIDS.
Among the notable past recipients are public officials, including Sens. Mike De Wine and Sherrod Brown, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Cleveland Mayor Michael White and Councilor Joe Cimperman; along with news organizations and members of the media such as
WCPN 90.3 FM, the Gay People's Chronicle, and Denise Dufala.
Community activists who have been honored in the past include Cathy Lewis, former chair of the Cleveland Foundation; vic gelb; Brooke Willis; Rob Toth; Ted Wammes; and John Katsaros. Health care practitioners include Henry Ng, M.D.; Douglas Van Auken, M.D. Robert Kalayian, M.D.; Victoria Cargill, M.D.; and David Newmarker, D.D.S.
Steve Louzos handles public relations for the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland.
Maya Jones, Danny Sparks and Nobles Darby accepted the award for the Ohio Advocates Youth Leadership Council.
In a breakfast ceremony on December 1, the AIDS Taskforce of Cleveland marked World AIDS Day with the Voices Against the Silence awards. The eleventh annual awards were given at the agency's offices on Euclid Avenue.
The 2009 honorees are:
Jeffrey Mazo, Ryan White Planning Council and the Consumer Advisory Board for the AIDS Clinical Trials Unit.
Jim Price, Co-chair, Cuyahoga County HIV Prevention Regional Advisory Group.
Cleveland Clinic, Department of Infectious Disease HIV Clinic.
AIDS Clinical Trial Unit of Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals.
Ohio Advocates Youth Leadership Council.
"It's unfortunate that over the past ten years or so, the battle against HIV/AIDS has slipped into silence," said Taskforce CEO Earl Pike. "The individuals and
Dave Merriman of the Cleveland Office of HIV Services and Laureen Tewsharber of the AIDS Funding Collabrative chat with award winner Jim Price.
Who will we be when it's over? The AIDS Taskforce takes a look at the future
by Steve Louzos
Cleveland-Twenty-five years ago, an HIV diagnosis was a death sentence.
For most of the first decade of the epidemic, activists from New York to San Francisco took to the streets demanding a cure, demanding that the government, the medical establishment, society, take notice and so something, anything. But the silence was deafening.
As the second decade unfolded, the activism waned, and public attention diminished. Drug therapies became more efficient
and social services evolved to provide compassionate support. As we learned to manage AIDS, we stopped imagining a world without it.
There have been amazing advances in the development of pharmaceuticals over the past few years. Reports out of the 12th World AIDS Conference this past June indicate that researchers now believe that a vaccine actually is possible. We can, for the first time, realistically begin to imagine an end to the epidemic. This is stunning news, indeed, but it raises a new challenge: It means critically examining everything we
World AIDS Day, 2009
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Our Nation joins the world in celebrating the extraordinary advancements we have made in the battle against HIV and AIDS, and remembering those we have lost. Over the past three decades, brave men and women have fought devastating discrimination, stigma, doubt, and violence as they stood in the face of this deadly disease. Many of them would not be here today, but for the dedication of other persons living with HIV, their loved ones and families, community advocates, and members of the medical profession. On World AIDS Day, we rededicate ourselves to developing a national AIDS strategy that will establish the priorities necessary to combat this devastating epidemic at home, and to renewing our leadership role and commitments abroad.
Though we have been witness to incredible progress, our struggle against HIV/AIDS is far from over. With an infection occurring every nine-and-a-half minutes in America, there are more than one million individuals estimated to be living with the disease in our country. Of those currently infected, one in five does not know they have the condition, and the majority of new infections are spread by people who are unaware of their own status. HIV/AIDS does not discriminate
as it infiltrates neighborhoods and communities. Americans of any gender, age, ethnicity, income, or sexual orientation can and are contracting the disease.
Globally, there are over 33 million people living with HIV.
While millions have died from this disease, the death rate is slowly declining due, in part, to our Nation's global effort through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program. However, HIV remains a leading cause of death worldwide. Women and children around the world are particularly vulnerable due to gender inequalities, gaps in access to services, and increases in sexual violence. While the statistics are distressing, new medications and scientific advancements give us reason for hope.
Tackling this disease will take an aggressive, steadfast approach. My Administration is developing a national HIV/ AIDS strategy to bolster our response to the domestic epidemic, and a global health initiative that will build on PEPFAR's success. We will develop a strategy to reduce HIV incidence, improve access to care, and help eliminate HIV-related health disparities. We have already ensured that visitors to our shores living with HIV are not marginalized and
do, even the so-called "sacred cows" in programming, and asking, "Is this or that program or service still relevant? Does it serve the best long-term interests of people living with and affected by HIV? As the AIDS epidemic is slowly but surely being transformed, are we, as an agency, transforming as well?"
The AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland is embarking on a deliberate process of integrating many of the services we now provide out into existing community service frameworks, and re-focusing (some would say, returning to the original AIDS
discriminated against because of their more (OVER) 2 HIV status. We have also secured the continuation of critical HIV/ AIDS care and treatment services. Today, we recommit ourselves to building on the accomplishments of the past decades that have dramatically changed the domestic and global HIV/AIDS landscape.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim December 1, 2009, as World AIDS Day. I urge the Governors of the States and the territories subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and the American people to join in appropriate activities to remember those who have lost their lives to AIDS, and to provide support and comfort to those living with this disease.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.
BARACK OBAMA
service organization focus) on training, promotion of best practices, advocacy, systems monitoring, and community engagement. To put it another way, at the end of this three-year transformation process, the AIDS Taskforce will, by design, reduce to about 40% of its current budget and staffing. It will be highly focused on systems change, service excellence, and the engagement of people with AIDS in the world (as opposed to specialized "AIDS settings" like HIV/ AIDS housing programs).
There is a poster in the lobby of the AIDS Taskforce that asks, "Now that you've been diagnosed with HIV, what can you do?" It goes on to list 38 different things that all people do every day, ending with, "Create your future, Ask for what you need, Give what you can, Dream, Live."
Steve Louzos handles public relations for the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland.
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