Transdiaspora Network&#8217;s Newsletter

Two New Studies Show Promise in Fight Against HIV
Two African studies published this week showed the much-needed signs of hope in preventing transmission of HIV among women and girls, the two groups at highest risk of infection in the region. The first, a small South African study of both urban and rural women, found a significant reduction in chances of becoming infected among women who used a vaginal microbicidal gel compared to those who had used a placebo. Women who used the gel most regularly reduced their chances of infection by 54 percent. While the study findings need to replicated on a larger scale before significant funds can be allocated towards its production, the initial results were heralded as game changing. “This is the first time that there’s been a tool that women can use to protect themselves from becoming infected,” explained Dr. Bruce Walker, a Harvard Medical School professor who was not involved in the study.

The second promising study, based out of Malawi, found that if poor schoolgirls and their families received small monthly cash payments, the girls had sex later, less often and with fewer partners, thereby reducing the likelihood of sexually transmitted infections. A year and a half into the study, results showed that girls whose families received payments were less than half as likely to be infected with AIDS or herpes viruses than those whose families had not. The likelihood that the girls would agree to sex in return for gifts and cash declined as the size of the payments from the program rose, suggesting the central role of extreme poverty in sexual choices.

Local Leaders Join TDN Board
Transdiaspora Network is pleased to welcome two new members to our Board of Directors, Onel Mulet and Ilia Nieves-Hoque. Onel Mulet is a Brooklyn-based producer, composer, and musician whose nearly 30-year career has taken him all over the world. A Miami native of Cuban descent, Onel has lived in New York since 2002. Before relocating from Miami, he worked on community-based cultural initiatives through the Iroko Afro-Cuban dance theater, a Miami Beach based non profit he helped to establish and grow. Since 1995 he has been organizing events that indulge his love for cultural diversity and dedication to public service.

Ilia Nieves-Hoque grew up in a very tight-knitted Latino family in the middle of one of the hardest neighborhoods in Brooklyn. After graduating high school she received a BA in Sociology from Hunter College and an MPA from Long Island University. Now a local businesswoman and entrepreneur, Ilia will foster partnerships with local businesses to support TDN’s mission and expand our reach. As a Board member, Ilia will bring her experience growing up in Brooklyn and overcoming challenges and serve as an advisor on community outreach and youth recruitment.

Meeting Examines Impact of HIV on Young Women of Caribbean Descent

Yvonne Graham, Brooklyn Borough Deputy President, receiving a Certificate of Appreciation from YWCHAC Executive Director Claire Simon

On Tuesday, June 8, TDN President and Founder Ariel Rojas was invited to speak at the Young Women of Color HIV/AIDS Coalition (YWCHAC) meeting in honor of National Caribbean HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Over 90 service providers in the New York City area participated. The meeting focused on the needs of young women of Caribbean descent, particularly examining what puts them at risk for HIV and the role of heterosexual men and family. Rojas spoke of the need to engage heterosexual men in the conversation about HIV prevention and include them in outreach efforts. Brooklyn Deputy Borough President Yvonne Graham gave the keynote address and was joined on the dais by panelists from the Caribbean Women’s Health Association, Diaspora Community Services, Iris House, Brooklyn Comprehensive Care Perinatal Network, and HHS Office of Women’s Health Region II. YWCHAC is an organization by and for young women of color whose mission is to address the structural factors that impact the lives of young women of color ages 13-24. For more information about YWCHAC and its programs visit www.statusispower.org. To see more pictures from the event, click here.

Latino AIDS Awareness Day to Focus on Early Testing
National Latino AIDS Awareness Day (NLAAD) will take place on October 15, the last day of Hispanic Heritage Month. NLAAD was established in 2003 in response to the impact of HIV and AIDS in Hispanic/Latino communities nationwide, including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. NLAAD is a national community mobilization and social marketing campaign that unites the Hispanic/Latino community in efforts to raise HIV awareness; promote HIV testing, prevention, and education; draw attention to other critical health issues such as Viral Hepatitis, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), and Tuberculosis (TB). NLAAD is also a capacity building opportunity that aims to improve the ability of community based organizations, faith based congregations, and local health departments to provide HIV testing, prevention, and education services through collaboration and partnership opportunities.

In 2009, NLAAD solidified support from 420 partners who together organized 350 events in 35 states across the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. This year’s theme, Save a Life, It May be your Own. Get Tested for HIV, speaks to the critical role HIV testing and prevention education play as a result of late testing realities faced by Hispanic/Latino communities. By facilitating partnerships; hosting community events to encourage people to seek HIV testing, counseling, and treatment; and by developing and disseminating prevention strategies, NLAAD promotes healthy communities.

For more information on NLAAD 2010 or if you have any questions, please contact Melissa Faith Ramirez, NLAAD Director, (212) 584-9315 or mramirez@latinoaids.org.

Positive Youth Ambassadors to Convene in Dallas
The National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA) will host its Positive Youth Institute on August 11-15, in Dallas, Texas. The Positive Youth Institute is a retreat designed exclusively for HIV-positive youth between the ages of 18 and 24, with the goal of providing HIV-positive young people from across the country with the life skills required for good health. The retreat will work towards developing more than 100 positive youth ambassadors who will bring the knowledge obtained in the course back to their communities. Through their participation in the retreat, the HIV-positive youth ambassadors will learn how to build sustainable leadership among other community youth, increase engagement in HIV prevention campaigns and initiatives targeting youth, and reduce community experiences resulting from HIV-related stigma. The workshops’ focus run the gamut of social and medical issues and in the past have included topics such as public presentation, resume building, media, creative arts, medical care and treatment, and body image.

For more information on the Positive Youth Conference and for registration and scholarship forms please click here.

Harlem’s North General to Close
After more than 30 years of serving the East and Central Harlem communities, North General Hospital is scheduled to shut its doors in the near future. Throughout its history, North General remained the only black-minority-operated, voluntary community teaching hospital in New York State. In the words of a recent editorial lamenting the hospital’s demise, “it has been a place where you could find doctors who were particularly sensitive to the health issues of our community, and you could feel safe and not question whether doctors understood or really cared about you and your issues…For many African Americans who have been afraid of health professionals and the health care system, the hospital has been an oasis, a place where you could really trust the doctors and nurses because they were fully invested in our community.” Despite full accreditation status and a newly renovated emergency room, without the backing of wealthy benefactors, the hospital has fallen hundreds of millions of dollars into debt. The Institute for Family Health will take over North General’s walk-in and primary health care clinic while the Health and Hospital Corporation will turn the rest of the facility into a long-term acute care center.

Empire State Building Lights Celebrate Caribbean Week

Throughout Caribbean Week, the Empire State Building was lit up in blue, green, and yellow, which are considered the colors of the Caribbean. The Diaspora was highly engaged in a list of activities arranged by the Caribbean Tourism Organization. The week-long celebration kicked off Jun 6 with an annual Church service at St. George’s Episcopal Church, in Brooklyn.

IN VOICE

On the Film Sex in An Epidemic
By Ashley Villarreal, TDN Local Health Reporter

When Jean Carlomusto started her career in AIDS advocacy she was up against an invisible force. It was the mid-80s and the disease had just been “discovered” by America. Many dealt with this shocking news, which almost single-handedly focused on the gay population, with defiance. There was no way that the U.S. was going to condone, or ultimately, pay for such behavior.

In 1988, Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina was the voice of the public when he submitted an amendment to prohibit the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) from making funds available for AIDS education. Racy videos, sexual comics, and sexual conduct were the culprits of the decline of society, and with a strong conservative backing, Helms successfully helped turn the country against the fight for AIDS.

At this time, Carlomusto was just as active speaking out for the disease as Helms was speaking against it. Joining on as part of ACT UP, an organization described by one city’s newscaster as being “known for disruptive protest designed to draw attention to the spread of AIDS,” (at one point wrapping Helms’ entire home in a makeshift condom) Carlomusto began to work on campaigns to dampen the spread of HIV. It seemed the best way to do this would be to lead a discussion towards understanding what sex is about and being able to talk openly about what it shouldn’t be.

To Carlomusto, this meant signing onto sex-oriented advertisements like the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) “Safer Sex Comix” as a way to reach out to broader audiences that might be turned off by an abstinence-only discussion.

Almost 25 years later, Carlomusto has put together a fledgling film, Sex in An Epidemic, a way to look back on the progress we’ve made in the fight for safe sex. The documentary follows several interviewees diagnosed with AIDS, chronicling the rise of AIDS in America among the gay population, the backlash from mainly religious and conservative institutions, and the struggle the gay population had in trying to define the limits of protected sex. It seemed the general consensus of the era, which followed a seamless decade of “free love” and guilt-free encounters, was that safe sex was going to have to be invented not enforced. From this argument, two sides formed – one which rallied to develop an adequate response to the implementation of safer practices, and the other which chose to ignore the concern and psychologically minimize the cost by waiting to let science decide.

Nowadays, being gay does not automatically mean you have AIDS. Homosexual characters now play major roles in our popular culture, and celebrity stars are even applauded for “coming out” on national television. In many ways, we have changed the way we perceive “the gay disease.” Yet, the battle over how to prepare ourselves and our children for the argument of safe sex still remains one of the greatest challenges.

The most harrowing takeaway point from Carlomusto’s film is that we may have come along way since 1985, but we still have much farther to go. In analyzing the battle to appropriately assign blame to one group or another (in this case the gay population at the rise of the disease) and later on to African Americans during its progression, we have ignored the real issue at hand: America has a problem with sex.

Today, the CDC is a major source of funding for AIDS research and advocacy, and although its funding goes mostly to pro-abstinence education, overall, people support condom and contraception education. In 2004, a study by the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and the Kaiser Health Foundation showed more than half of parents and educators believed in what was called “abstinence-plus” education. Only 15 percent said they supported an abstinence-only curriculum. Yet, when educators were surveyed on whether or not they teach abstinence-only in schools, 30 percent of principals at public schools reported doing so.

Just last week, a public school in Montana publicized its goal to begin teaching sexual education in kindergarten. Protests erupted nationwide as adults and parents stood up against what they considered dangerous, not simply because of a curriculum open to the idea of sex, but one that teaches kids about anal sex and sex with objects to five-year-olds. Despite a lack of popular opinion from a clinical or scientific field, the message is clear: we don’t want to teach the next generation that being gay and having gay sex is okay.

There has been a lot of discussion recently that expands the focus of HIV prevention. It’s not just the gay population anymore. This past month, President Barack Obama stated that his Global Health Initiative for AIDS would focus mainly on black men in America. Press conferences held by pop stars such as Lady Gaga have focused on the lack of communication for increasing rates of infection of women with HIV. Even here at Transdiaspora Network reported a 2008 statistic from the CDC showing that rates of HIV infection were on the rise in children, and 1 out of 9 HIV infections were happening right here in the New York Metropolitan area.

Although this goes a long way to being more proactive about how we target the disease, perhaps the message of the film is not just that we shouldn’t forget about the gay community as a subset of society that still lacks a solution, but that we should analyze the history of how we have come to define safe sex. The film discusses defining what this means, going beyond the concept of condom-use to bring in ideas of real human bonds of trust and love as weapons for safe sex, while discounting the idea that AIDS just arises out of promiscuity. The real fight against AIDS may lie not within overcoming our sexual differences, but in the questions still left unanswered: why isn’t talking about sex more welcome in our society? Why has the struggle for sex education been so convoluted? And lastly, what does it mean to feel safe while having sex anyway?

The documentary Sex in An Epidemic is still touring the film festival circuit and is expected to be available for purchase sometime later this year. For rental, please send inquiries to info@outcast-films.com.

OPINION

New Tools For Talking About HIV
By Fahmida

There are several barriers that prevent people from talking about HIV. The negative stigma prevents people from talking about the disease. People feel as though if they talk about HIV, others will automatically assume that they are infected. Another thing that prevents people from talking about HIV is culture and religion. Many different religions forbid sex before marriage and other behaviors that may put you at risk, therefore if someone brings up the topic of HIV, family members that share the same religion, culture, and traditions automatically assume that you have the disease or are putting yourself at risk. It’s easily seen how much trouble people have to just talk about HIV, for people to even imagine learning about HIV prevention, and spreading the information about prevention is unthinkable.

Another thing that prevents HIV and prevention to be talked about is the lack of knowledge. In my own experience, I have seen that many people I know don’t know about HIV. They have heard about it, but other than the name, they don’t know anything about the disease. I also think that, with an older generation, such as my parents’, HIV is something they don’t want to talk about. It’s the mindset that they grew up with that doesn’t allow them to be open-minded about talking about HIV. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with their way of thinking because it’s something they grew up with; it’s just a more traditional way of thinking, and it’s not something we can change easily.

Not knowing how to bring up the topic of HIV is the main reason why people have trouble talking about it. However, the topic of HIV is not taken lightly when it is brought up. That’s why bringing it up in the right way is so important.

The Social Photography Workshop has allowed us to be able to talk about HIV in an easier way by using photography. We’ve seen that we can also use videos, dance, and movies to portray HIV prevention. Using these forms of expression allows a group of people to talk about HIV but by using the support of something many people can relate to. That way, the topic of HIV doesn’t come on so strong, and it’s easier for people to stay committed to the conversation and the topic.

Fahmida is a junior at Brooklyn Technical High School and graduate of TDN’s Social Photography Workshop.

Editorial: Fighting AIDS on Limited Budgets

With the AIDS epidemic still spreading rapidly around the globe, public health programs have to use their resources a lot more effectively. The need for greater efficiency in a time of limited resources is an important theme of President Obama’s new national AIDS strategy. The same argument is being made by the United Nations agency that battles the epidemic and by Bill Gates, whose foundation plays an influential role in financing a global response.

While drug treatments are keeping more people infected with the AIDS virus alive in the United States, the number of new infections of H.I.V. has held steady at about 56,000 a year. The White House strategy aims to reduce that number by 25 percent over the next five years and to substantially increase the percentage of people who get tested and treated promptly.

To meet those goals, it calls for redirecting some of the $19 billion that the federal government currently spends annually on domestic AIDS programs to areas where the need is greatest and to groups at greatest risk, such as gay and bisexual men, blacks, Latinos and injection drug users. That sounds reasonable in tough times.

In the developing world, where drug treatments are also saving many lives, new infections are occurring at a faster rate than treatment is being provided. According to estimates from the United Nations, only a third of the 15 million people who need treatment are getting it and $27 billion a year is needed for the global fight – roughly $10 billion to $11 billion more than is now spent.

The United Nations agency is calling for a concerted effort to develop a less-costly and less-toxic single dose pill and simple, cheaper diagnostic and monitoring tests. It is calling for redirecting contributions away from middle-income countries such as China, India and South Africa, which should bear more of their own burden, to free up more money for poorer nations.

A final victory over AIDS will require research breakthroughs. Scientists seem increasingly optimistic that a vaccine will ultimately prove feasible. But that is still a distant dream.

[Excerpted from The New York Times, July 16, 2010]

IN OTHER WORDS

“So the question is not whether we know what to do, but whether we will do it. Whether we will fulfill those obligations; whether we will marshal our resources and the political will to confront a tragedy that is preventable.”

-President Barack Obama

Transdiaspora Network^TM is a New York-based human capacity building non-profit organization conducting HIV prevention awareness and community-based, culturally aware preventive mentoring for a population of youth at high risk. In addition, it facilitates identification of community resources, empowerment based interventions, and educational approaches to increase health literacy. Our Afro-Caribbean Dance Mediation, Storytelling Dynamics, Social Photography Workshop, and The CarHIV Youth Society provide solutions that increase self-awareness and assertiveness. For more information about our organization, please visit www.transdiasporanetwork.org.

(c)Transdiaspora Network, July 2010

July 19, 2010 No Comments

Issue XV – May 2010

Introduction
Announcements
In Voice – Taking it in Stride
Opinion – Barriers to Prevention, by Jenyca
In the News
In Other Words

We have many exciting happenings to share here at Transdiaspora Network, including the recent celebration of our Third Annual Benefit Concert and the completion our first Social Photography Workshop cycle. We are proud to announce that the next two newsletters will feature original opinion pieces authored by Workshop participants. However, despite our many tremendous achievements and developments, we would be remiss not to mention some disturbing local developments in the HIV/AIDS world. Mayor Bloomberg has proposed devastating budget cuts to the HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) that would eliminate one third of the caseworkers who provide intensive case management for 11,000 poor people living with AIDS who reside in subsidized apartments and need help accessing public services. These cuts would not only destroy HASA but also violate a prior ruling mandating maximum client to caseworker ratios. While we sympathize with the budget crisis and the need to make cuts, we abhor and condemn the mayor’s decision to make these cuts at the expense of the city’s neediest and most vulnerable populations. TDN is now on Twitter, so please follow us for important news and developments in the community.

Susan Wile Schwarz, MPH
Communications & Research Director

Benefit Brings Together Music Fans and Activists Alike

Benefit emcee Rhina Valentin.

On Saturday, May 15, Transdiaspora Network celebrated its Third Annual Benefit Concert with a performance by Grammy-nominated vocalist Xiomara Laugart. The Benefit, emceed by noted actor, producer, and director Rhina Valentin, included dinner, raffle giveaways, and featured a much-lauded presentation by participants from TDN’s inaugural Social Photography Workshop. “I appreciated how eloquently these young ladies spoke about the matter of HIV prevention…and their understanding of shifting the thought process,” said Valentin. Over 60 supporters attended the special event, including special guests from Frank Zimmerman and Susana Rios-Moore from NBC/Telemundo. The evening raised much-needed funds to support TDN’s continued programs with Brooklyn public high school students. “I’m thrilled with the tremendous showing of support from throughout the community,” said President and Founder Ariel Rojas. “The success of the Benefit is testament to the hard work and dedication of our extended TDN family and the youth who continue to spread our message of prevention in the community.”

To see more pictures from the event, click here.

TDN Founder Meets with Colombian Prevention Team
Recently, Transdiaspora Network President and Founder Ariel Rojas made a trip to Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, one of the most colorful Caribbean cities, where he was invited to visit DADIS (Departamento Administrativo Distrital de Salud), the local governmental agency in charge of developing health programs in the region. Ariel established a fruitful dialogue with the team of professionals responsible for the sexual and reproductive health program. Among other responsibilities, this team is charged with coordinating activities and designing local policies related to HIV/AIDS prevention in Cartagena, a city with a flourishing tourism industry, but also impacted by poverty, drug trafficking, prostitution, and infant exploitation.

According to Dr. John Mendoza, the team leader and psychologist by training, “Cartagena doesn’t have a high rate of HIV infections in comparison with the national average, but it has a high-risk population because of those who have been disfranchised by the lack of economic opportunities and displaced by the violent military actions of the guerrilla movement. We have to deal with the HIV-related public stigma as well. However, our program is creating new educational ways to involve the teenagers such as confidential counseling and giving away fashionable keychains where they can keep a pair of condoms.” Discussing the cooperative effort with local NGOs (i.e. Amigos Positivos Association, GEPS Foundation), Dr. Mendoza highlighted how DADIS is working to create a Cartagena-based District Committee of HIV/AIDS Prevention in the near future to help increase the level of prevention effectiveness in low-income towns and the tourism sector.

To see pictures from the meeting, click here.

Latino Commission Study Highlights Need to Reduce Stigma, Focus on Spanish-Language Population
In late April, the Latino Commission on AIDS released a new report entitled New York State Responds to the Latino HIV/AIDS Crisis and Plans for Action with strategies for coordinated statewide campaigns to mobilize community leaders, elected officials, and Latino communities in response to AIDS and promote a call-to-action to prevent and reduce the further spread of HIV.

The report was based on research conducted from January through December of last year, in collaboration with the New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute. The research drew from throughout the state and included 28 bilingual focus groups and 400 one-on-one interviews to better understand how HIV/AIDS and other health challenges are currently affecting New York’s Latino communities.

In 2007, Latinos in New York State represented 16% of the population, but accounted for 30% of people living with HIV/AIDS. CDC data shows that Latinos progress to AIDS faster than any other racial or ethnic group, with 42% being diagnosed with AIDS within 12 months after learning of their positive HIV status compared to 34% late diagnosis among white non Hispanic and 35% among blacks.

“Among other important recommendations, this report calls for New York State to address the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS,” said New York Senate Health Committee Chair Thomas K. Duane. “This report illustrates the need for legislation that supports HIV testing as a routine part of health care and legislation that ends discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.”

“This report calls attention to the needs of some of our state and city’s most vulnerable populations,” said Dr. Monica Sweeney, the NYC Health Department’s assistant commissioner for HIV/AIDS. “To reduce HIV transmission, we must address social disadvantages that can foster risky behavior among adolescents and others. At the same time, we must strengthen outreach and education in the Latino community, and ensure that Latino immigrants feel safe accessing health care. New York City’s STD clinics never ask for health insurance or immigration status – and anyone can find one by calling 311.”

“Sexual activity is a leading cause of HIV infection for Latino youth and yet many don’t have access to sexual health education,” said Dr. Donna Futterman, Director of the Adolescent AIDS Program and Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Montefiore Medical Center. “New York State needs to mandate comprehensive sex education that is not abstinence only in all public schools to ensure that our youth are provided with education that includes self-esteem building, decision making skills, HIV/STI prevention and pregnancy prevention. This report calls reminds us that school based education is especially important for young people from homes where sexuality is not discussed.”

AIDS Walk New York Surpasses Annual Expectations
By Ashley Villarreal

The TDN AIDS Walk team.

On Sunday, May 16, over 45,000 people gathered at 59th Street and 5th Avenue to make the 25th annual AIDS Walk New York through Central Park to help fight HIV/AIDS. Thousands of individual contributors and corporate sponsors raised over $5.7 million for AIDS Walk New York (AWNY) and the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) by donating their time and endurance to make the 10 km trek up the west side of Central Park.

Transdiaspora Network brought in over $300 in donations this year as our walkers enjoyed a breezy afternoon alongside a marching band, African drum group, and red, white and blue adorned cheerleaders encouraging them and other New Yorkers as they made their way up several paths to 110th Street.

After parading up the west side of the island, our walkers made their way back down Riverside Drive with the rest of the procession buoyed by supportive passersby and shouting onlookers. The size of this year’s walk has instilled hope in AIDS activists citywide and provided a new enthusiasm for programs and services that New York City has felt further pressed for in past years.

“Today’s massive turnout and fundraising results demonstrate that our community is ready to face the next round of challenges in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Infections among youths, minorities, women, and gay men are increasing, while government funding at all levels is decreasing,” said Chief Executive Officer of GMHC, Marjorie J. Hill, in a press release.

Since 1986, AWNY has raised more than $110 million for HIV programs and services in the tri-state area, and has grown into the largest AIDS fundraising event in the world. In 2009 alone, 45,000 participants, many of whom were members of nearly 2,900 corporate and community teams, raised more than $5.6 million for GMHC and 50 other tri-state area AIDS service organizations.

To see more pictures from the event, click here.

TDN Lends Support to When-To-Start Study
On Friday, April 30, Transdiaspora Network signed on to officially endorse a petition in response to a call for more research on antiretroviral treatment. Our goal, along with participating HIV/AIDS organizations, is to build public support for the over 4,000 volunteers who would assist in START (Strategic Timing of Antiretroviral Treatment), a large-scale trial that tests for side-effects and drug resistance to long-term antiretroviral therapy. For millions of people living with AIDS, antiretroviral treatment is oftentimes the saving grace in the battle against a harrowing illness that still awaits a cure. This measure comes after the U.S. HIV Treatment Guidelines Panel changed its recommendation that patients should start treatment when they reach a 500 CD4 count, instead of 250.

TDN Participates on Girl Scout HIV Educators Panel

TDN President and Founder Ariel Rojas speaking at a peer education panel.

In early April, Transdiaspora Network’s Ariel Rojas, along with one of our youth program participants, represented the organization on a panel of youth-focused HIV/AIDS organizations speaking to a Girl Scouts of America group visiting from San Diego. Panel attendees had recently completed training to become HIV/AIDS peer educators through a collaborative project with Girl Guides in Kenya. Ariel spoke about TDN’s work cultivating peer educators and leaders here in Brooklyn and highlighted our special focus incorporating cultural perspectives into prevention and peer education.

To see more pictures from the event, click here.

IN VOICE

Taking it in Stride
By Ashley Villarreal

Darrell found out he was HIV positive shortly after his partner at the time had already started to get sick. By this time, he half expected he’d wind up in the same boat. It was 1995 when a friend working at a rehabilitation center told Darrell about a clinic that was conducting free testing. When the test came back positive, he just about breathed a sigh of relief. For anyone else, the diagnosis would have been bad, but for Darrell, the news was good.

“When I found out, it was disappointing because at that point I didn’t want to be here anymore,” recalled Darrell, who grew up Barbados and moved to New York when he was seven years old.

By the time he found out about his status, he’d already survived rape, abuse for his sexual orientation, cut ties from his family, and a few years of homelessness and life on the street. The news of his HIV status was just another bump in the road. Shortly after being diagnosed, he found out his long-time partner would ultimately die from AIDS. “He was the world to me,” Darrell said. “I never thought I would have that again.”

These days, things are looking up for Darrell, 42, a consultant who lives in Brooklyn and recently met a new partner with whom he’s been for four years. Darrell seems to take each day in stride. With an attitude that embodies the cliche, “what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger,” he shrugs at the mention of his illness, a confident defiance in him that can only say, “that’s life.”

What really bothers Darrell now more than his own status is the perceptions of those around him who treat others unfairly for being gay or HIV positive because they lack knowledge or understanding – some going so far as to feed him off of paper plates.

“Some people just don’t want to take the time to learn and would rather be ignorant about it,” he said. “Society has gotten this way where we are just so dumbed down that the government can kind of push anything on us, and now just because somebody says something doesn’t mean it’s always true.”

Although the stigma that HIV is directly related to homosexuality is more powerful where he’s from in the Caribbean, where even holding hands in public can land you in the hospital (an issue which worried Darrell when approaching his new partner) he still feels stereotypes are alive and well in here New York. And the trend is anything but shrinking within the gay community, he said, which has shown its true colors with the advent of online dating as many singles often express cruel sentiments to screen for others who are “disease free.”

“People are just so superficial when it comes to these things and miss out on a lot of good people and kindhearted people because of their fears. And most times it’s their insecurities” he said.

Darrell said psychology taught him that many people doing the bashing often struggle with similar emotions, and the negative stereotypes that circulate don’t bode well for the way people think about themselves. Even during Darrell’s attendance at a local health center for people with HIV he saw these notions stretched even further.

“People that were around me had been in jail or were really into drugs and that was just the impression I got and it started to seem like that’s what they had to say about it and that that was what defines you,” he said.

Referring to himself as a “conservative gay,” Darrell noted that he often struggles with the image of just identifying as a gay man. “People just assume because you’re gay it means you wanna come on to them, and I’m like, ‘no, do you wanna sleep with everybody you meet? I don’t think so!’”

“The bottom line is that people make the same mistake no matter where they stand,” he said, and “think they can get away with sleeping with someone without protection if everything seems acceptable on the surface.”

“You don’t know anybody. Anybody can tell you anything,” he warned. “If somebody tells you it’s okay [to have unprotected sex] that should set off a red flag that sends you running because you know right there they don’t even care about themselves.”

At this point in his life, Darrell can only lend his own experiences as advice to others struggling with their identity or living with HIV. And although he’s lost friends along the way, both straight and gay, “the only real person you need to make peace with is yourself,” he said.

“You can’t run away from you – I tried – but this is who I am. People are gonna talk, but you just gotta be comfortable with you and stand up for you,” he said. “Life is just a fleeting thing. It’s just a whisper in the wind. You just gotta live. I say the hell with what other people say because they’re not paying my bills or putting clothes on my back, so you’re entitled to your opinion and I’m still going to be me regardless.”

OPINION

Barriers to Prevention
By Jenyca

Initially the barrier was just speaking of HIV. Whether amongst peers or strangers, I felt that that this was an issue. As the weeks progressed, and we got deeper into the details of HIV and HIV prevention, it was easier to speak about. Before this workshop, I’d think about HIV once in a blue moon, now I think of it more. It’s something important to be spoken about.

Now that I’m able to speak of it, a new barrier has formed – approaching it to people outside of this workshop. Adults are “too busy” to listen to what you might have to say, or we often catch them at a “bad time.” Even teenagers are difficult to speak to about this situation, or any situation for that matter. They just don’t care about things.

The most important thing to a teenager is school, friends, family, clothes, material things, etc., probably not even in that order. Though they are the best people to teach things to, along with preteens and children, they have the attention span of a goldfish. However, I feel that though it is difficult to speak to them, it is still easier to speak to them than it is to speak to adults. Teenagers and young adults go to school and are used to spending many hours learning new things. Older people feel that they are wise enough already, and wouldn’t want to be burdened with an issue such as HIV.

Aside from all of this, another barrier is that people live in a fantasy world. They don’t like to discuss or face hardships. Many people don’t watch the news, not only because they are uninterested but because they don’t want to see the devastations going on in the world.

When something is looked down upon, people won’t admit to taking a part in it. Just like it’s difficult to speak about HIV prevention, or HIV in general, it is worse if you are a victim of it. But at the same time, it is better for a victim of HIV to speak about HIV because experience is the best teacher. The message and importance of prevention would be understood and more enforced.

Aside from the shame that some people feel, another thing that prevents people from engaging in effective HIV prevention is their cultural background or a feeling of embarrassment. Some people may feel or automatically assume that just because you start speaking of HIV that you have it and will begin to distance themselves from you. You will become the outcast of a group and others will soon isolate themselves.

Unfortunately, HIV has a negative stigma attached to it. We as a whole need to remove the stigma, band together, and stop the spread of HIV. Before going out and telling people to get tested, you first must find the correct approach. It only takes one person to make a difference, but it also takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and patience. Though getting tested may be a scary thought, it can relieve all the anxiety of not knowing your status. Unfortunately, with today’s mentality, people think it’s okay, or would rather not know anything about HIV and how much they’re putting themselves at risk.

The problem with some people may not be that they are afraid to tell their partner that they are HIV positive but that they don’t know. Some people even have the mentality of “you’re only young once, so live a little,” or “carpe diem.” Hardly do they ever take into consideration the fact that a little “fun” can leave a huge impact on your life that will not be for the better. Just like you wouldn’t jump off a building or a bridge without protective gear, you shouldn’t involve yourself in unprotected sexual activities.

Jenyca is a 17-year-old Brooklyn high school student of Haitian descent and participant in TDN’s Social Photography Workshop. In the fall, she will continue her studies at St. John’s College in Queens.

At Front Lines, AIDS War Is Falling Apart

By Donald G. McNeil Jr.

KAMPALA, Uganda – … Uganda is the first and most obvious example of how the war on global AIDS is falling apart.The last decade has been what some doctors call a “golden window” for treatment. Drugs that once cost $12,000 a year fell to less than $100, and the world was willing to pay. In Uganda, where fewer than 10,000 were on drugs a decade ago, nearly 200,000 now are, largely as a result of American generosity. But the golden window is closing.

Uganda is the first country where major clinics routinely turn people away, but it will not be the last. In Kenya next door, grants to keep 200,000 on drugs will expire soon. An American-run program in Mozambique has been told to stop opening clinics. There have been drug shortages in Nigeria and Swaziland. Tanzania and Botswana are trimming treatment slots, according to a report by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders.

The collapse was set off by the global recession’s effect on donors, and by a growing sense that more lives would be saved by fighting other, cheaper diseases. Even as the number of people infected by AIDS grows by a million a year, money for treatment has stopped growing.
Other forces made failure almost inevitable.

Science has produced no magic bullet – no cure, no vaccine, no widely accepted female condom. Every proposal for controlling the epidemic with current tools – like circumcising every man in the third world, giving a daily prophylactic pill to everyone contemplating sex or testing billions of people and treating all the estimated 33 million who would test positive – is wildly impractical.

And, most devastating of all, old-fashioned prevention has flopped. Too few people, particularly in Africa, are using the “ABC” approach pioneered here in Uganda: abstain, be faithful, use condoms. For every 100 people put on treatment, 250 are newly infected, according to the United Nations’ AIDS-fighting agency, Unaids…

“You cannot mop the floor when the tap is still running on it,” said Dr. David Kihumuro Apuuli, director-general of the Uganda AIDS Commission.

[Excerpted from The New York Times, May 9, 2010]

IN OTHER WORDS

“In today’s climate in our country, which is sickened with the pollution of pollution, threatened with the prominence of AIDS, riddled with burgeoning racism, rife with growing huddles of the homeless, we need art and we need art in all forms. We need all methods of art to be present, everywhere present, and all the time present.”

-Maya Angelou

©Transdiaspora Network, May 2010

May 25, 2010 No Comments

Issue XIV – March 2010

Introduction
Announcements
In Voice
Opinion – Battling Recruitment Resistance, by Shahana Hanif
In the News
In Other Words

This winter has been one of the harshest in recent memory. When we weren’t digging ourselves out, snow storm after snow storm, we were slogging to work through the bitterest cold. In the past couple months, we witnessed great human suffering in Haiti and Chile, but we also reveled in great human triumph at Vancouver. And if recent days are any indication, springtime is closer than we think. In keeping with the spirit of the season, Transdiaspora Network continues to grow – welcoming new team members, inaugurating innovative new programs for teens, and celebrating our persistence and dedication with our third annual benefit concert.

We thank you, our friends, for your continued support.

Susan Wile Schwarz, MPH
Communications & Research Director

Teens Gather for Social Photography Workshop

By Shahana Hanif

The first session of Transdiaspora Network’s ten-week Social Photography Workshop took place on Friday, February 19. The seven participants, females in the ages 14-18, are of Caribbean and Bangladeshi descent and hail from the Kensington, Bushwick, Downtown Brooklyn, and Prospect Heights neighborhoods of Brooklyn.

At the outset of the first session, participants introduced themselves and explained what motivated them to join the workshop. Rea, 14, explained, “every year at my school during AIDS Week, guest speakers with the disease share their story about living with AIDS. Though the stories dishearten me, they also inspire me to be strong. By participating in this program, I can learn more about HIV prevention and protection because the facts are just as important as the stories.” Jenyca, 17, who is looking forward to the photography aspect of the program, hopes to “understand HIV/AIDS visually through the art of picture-taking.”

After brief introductions, each participant was asked to “spit” the first word that came to mind upon hearing the term “HIV.” The participants were quick to associate HIV with negative words like “change, death, disrespect, ugly.” TDN President and Founder Ariel Rojas, who led the session, explained, “it is easy to point out the negative terms related to HIV. In the following weeks, collaboratively, we will look at HIV through positive images, building leadership among ourselves and in our community.”

In the upcoming sessions, the workshops will continue to encourage participants to look at HIV prevention within their communities in Brooklyn and promote a different way of thinking and talking about the subject that better reflects the reality of participants while at the same time empowering youth leaders to tackle the subject more dynamically and thoughtfully.

Jamaica Funds Education
The Inter-American Development Bank recently approved $45 million in financing to improve Jamaica’s education system and expand compulsory schooling from age 16 to 18.

The bulk of the funds will support education policy formation and the implementation of institutional changes needed to improve the quality of education, including curriculum reform and teacher trainer, and to increase the system’s efficiency and accountability. A portion will also be invested in building two secondary schools to accommodate up to 2,100 new students and upgrade information technology systems within the Education Ministry to improve use of data for policy and decision making.

Combined TB and HIV Treatment Improves Outcomes
Initiating antiretroviral therapy during tuberculosis treatment reduced mortality rates by 56%, according to study published February 25 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study, a randomized clinical trial of 642 patients infected with both HIV and tuberculosis, provides further support for arguments to integrate HIV and TB services.

“Despite World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines supporting concomitant treatment of the two diseases and urging more aggressive management initiation of antiretroviral therapy, treatment often has been deferred until completion of tuberculosis therapy because of concern about potential drug interactions, overlapping side effects, a high pill burden, and programmatic challenges,” said Salim S. Abdool Karim, MD, PhD, professor of clinical epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, pro vice-chancellor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa, and principal investigator of the study.

Based on the results of this study, the World Health Organization guidelines for treatment of TB and HIV co-infection were revised in late 2009.

IN VOICE

Horror and Hope as Haiti Rebuilds
By Ashley Villarreal

When the earthquake hit Haiti, Mike Henriquez held his breath. He had family there and had traveled back and forth from New York almost every year up until 1995, in part, because of growing political turmoil. On January 12, the headlines streamed onto the New York Time’s Web site classifying the earthquake that hit Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, which houses over 2 million people, as a 7.0 magnitude quake. This would make it the most devastating disaster in the region in over 200 years.

“When I heard that, I knew it was going to be major,” he said. It wasn’t until days later that Henriquez learned a portion of his uncle’s home had collapsed on top of him, almost breaking his collarbone.

Henriquez, a civil engineer with the New York State Department of Transportation, had dreamed of one day being able to somehow help Haiti, a country that has historically suffered from political corruption, poverty, a lack in health services, and elevated HIV/AIDS cases for decades. “I always wanted to go down there and do something and I never have,” he said. “But as soon as this happened, I said this is the time now. I have to step up.”

After speaking with his sister, who had ties to several organizations focused on providing aid in the wake of the disaster, Henriquez decided to join with Proyecto America to bring services to remote areas. The organization, which formed in Uruguay around 1995, was about to embark on a five-day journey where over 100 volunteers would travel to set up tents each day to bring clothes, food, and water to some of the reported 1.5 million people who lost their homes.

In addition to joining the mission, Henriquez would also bring $300 in donations from Transdiaspora Network to provide medical supplies for the camp. Now, more than a month after the quake, Henriquez remembers his experience vividly.

When I asked Henriquez what surprised him upon arriving in Haiti, he laughed ironically, recounting the trip that left him with a lasting impression for which it was hard to have prepared. He tells about a tour his father took him on of the capital, the smell of burned flesh still lingering in the air. “It looks like a war zone,” he said. “I don’t know how else to describe it, the buildings that collapsed, it looks like it was just bombed.”

At the camp, situated in Croix-des-Bouquets, 8 miles from Port-au-Prince, the Proyecto America team set up over 50 tents that housed around 5,000 people. The camp was filled to capacity. Of all the supplies they brought, water was what many of the now-refugee Haitians needed most. “That was the biggest concern,” Henriquez said. “They would start fighting when they knew that it was running out, pushing and trying to get ahead of the line.”

Henriquez said that for many people at the camp, the story was the same. Their houses had been lost, many of their families had been lost, and now they had nowhere to go. Rarely did Henriquez see entire groups at the camp; the majority who came were mothers with babies, or children who came by themselves. There were hardly any intact families.

When Henriquez reflects on his trip, he strongly believes in the work he’s done but he understands why it would be difficult for others to act similarly. Most of the people he knows are second generation Haitians: they grew up here and are not familiar with the culture. He acknowledges that what people see and hear in the media might make them afraid to travel to Haiti. On the other hand, even though things are now worse, he believes they were in the process of getting better.

“My only advice is to say, ‘don’t forget about Haiti,’” Henriquez said. “The people there still need help, and there’s still a lot to be done over there. A lot of money has been collected, but I don’t think it’s enough yet.” It’s critical now that Haiti receive the support from the U.S. that it deserves and that help comes from outside to build better infrastructure and provide education so that people can raise their quality of life, he says.

“There really is no health care system there. Haiti basically has a complicated history where the extremely wealthy [control the majority of resources] and the extremely poor make up 95% of the people,” Henriquez said. “Hopefully we can build it back up, and I’m hoping the U.S. will take the lead. I don’t want them to just give the money to the Haitian government because it will disappear like it has in the past.”

Next month, Henriquez plans to travel back to Haiti to visit his family and will most likely team up with another organization to provide aid to those in need. Proyecto America also plans to revisit the country in May for Phase 2 of the rebuilding effort. Visit their website for more information: www.proyectoamerica.net.

OPINION

Battling Recruitment Resistance
By Shahana Hanif

Trying to engage high school students for an educational extracurricular program can be an uphill battle. Our recruitment efforts met with resistance from every direction – parents, school administrators, and most significantly, students themselves. Transdiaspora Network Youth Affairs Coordinator Shahana Hanif journeyed through Brooklyn’s high schools and educational bureaucracy in an attempt to recruit participants for TDN’s new Social Photography Workshop.

I began the recruitment process for our Social Photography Workshop in mid-January with hopes of enrolling 5-10 prospective high school students. Our efforts to contact schools through the phone, in person, and via e-mail, met with shocking reception.

I planned to visit Bishop Kearney, an all-girls private, Catholic high school of which I am an alumna. On my first attempt to recruit students from Bishop Kearney, I was able to broadcast an announcement in regards to the Social Photography Workshop, an effort that yielded only three possible participants.

On my second attempt at Bishop Kearney, I aimed to recruit students who were involved in extracurricular activities related to the arts and health. Though I had connections to the club moderators, the teachers barred me from making presentations without permission from a higher authority. After several phone calls to numerous administrative personnel, I was still unable to obtain the necessary consent to present the program.

In the meantime, I made phone calls to several Brooklyn public high schools, including Midwood and Brooklyn College Academy. My partner, TDN Health News Reporter Ashley Villarreal, visited Midwood High School, and the response she received was similarly unreceptive. According to Rebecca Miller, Director of Community Affairs for the New York City Department of Education, “schools work to admit outside organizations on a case-by-case basis.” They have the right to decide whether the organization is legitimate, with goals that won’t put their students in danger.

I then took the outreach initiative to my Facebook friends. First, I set my default picture to the Social Photography Workshop promotional poster. I then sent a note to students ages 14-18. Five students showed interest and were willing to bring a friend. Some replied saying they have jobs and responsibilities at home. Kristen, 17, a prospective student, wasn’t shy to admit “HIV/AIDS is creepy. If the workshops dealt with breast cancer or another disease, more people would want to participate.”

If the students are not willing to join programs, what are they doing after school? According to the Afterschool Alliance, an organization based in NW, Washington, DC, working to ensure that all children have access to affordable, quality afterschool programs, research indicates that the hours between 3:00 pm and 6:00 pm are the peak hours for juvenile crime and experimentation with drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and sex.

The Afterschool Alliance summarizes barriers to afterschool participation by older youth as including employment, lack of interest, the “relax” factor or desire to hang out after school rather than participate in an organized activity, and family responsibilities. They also cite other barriers such as transportation and financial constraints. Adding to these, my efforts revealed one parent who would not allow her daughter to participate because it was not “school-related.” Parents should realize that participation in high quality afterschool programming can be just as important as any academic requirement in school. Participation in programs like ours foster not only improved knowledge and awareness about HIV/AIDS prevention but also self-esteem, self-awareness, protection, and courage.

Though the recruitment process was a challenging one, I was able to enroll seven enthusiastic students by offering flexible attendance policies and an accessible location. For the next ten weeks, Transdiaspora Network is looking forward to what one student, Rea, 14, says should be an experience of “awesomeness and awareness.” The Social Photography Workshop not only promotes leadership, HIV/AIDS prevention, and hands on experience with a camera, but also acts as a bridge between school and community.

UN: HIV/AIDS Leading Cause of Death and Disease Among Younger Women

By Margaret Besheer

The United Nations AIDS agency says in many societies young women and girls face discrimination and gender inequalities that can make them more vulnerable to HIV infection. The agency launched a new initiative Tuesday to reverse that trend and put women at the center of national and local AIDS response.

Suksma Ratri’s story is like that of many other women around the world. Separated from her physically abusive husband she found out that he was HIV-positive. She immediately got herself and their young daughter tested at a clinic in her native Indonesia. She tested positive, her daughter did not…

Suksma’s story reflects a bigger trend in global HIV/AIDS infection rates. According to UNAIDS, HIV is the leading cause of death and disease among women ages 15-49.

Across the globe, women make up fully half of the epidemic. And in sub-Saharan Africa, where some of the highest HIV rates are, 60 percent of the people living with HIV are women. UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé warned that this has serious consequences for the health and mortality, not just of women, but their children as well.

“400,000 babies are born every year in Africa – 400,000 babies with HIV/AIDS,” said Michel Sidibé. “It means that amongst those babies which are born, we will have almost 30 percent of those babies will die before their first anniversary [birthday] if they do not have access to medicine.”

Sidibé says this is a symptom of a larger problem.

“Worse than that one, it means that 400,000 women, mothers, have not been checked, have not been having access to services, have not been able to at least avoid transmission from mother to child,” said Sidibé. “But also they will be at risk to not live with us for years to come.”

Sidibé says the new UNAIDS initiative aims to give women and girls the power to prevent HIV infection, by giving them the information and skills to negotiate when and how they have sex; to protect their human rights; and ensure their access to prevention, care and treatment. The five-year plan hopes to eliminate gender inequalities in HIV-prevention and treatment by getting governments, civil society and development groups involved in putting women and girls at the center of their AIDS response.

[Excerpted from Voice of America, March 2, 2010]

IN OTHER WORDS

“Human consciousness is given shape by images, rythyms, sounds, words: the tools of the artist. The potential power of art as a force for change has long been known to censors and dictators. It is a potential that can be fulfilled once we rediscover and proclaim the rightful and natural place of art and artists in the life of our people.”

-Ricardo Levins Morales

Transdiaspora Network^TM is a New York-based human capacity building non-profit organization conducting HIV prevention awareness and community-based, culturally aware preventive mentoring for a population of youth at high risk. In addition, it facilitates identification of community resources, empowerment based interventions, and educational approaches to increase health literacy. Our Afro-Caribbean Dance Mediation, Storytelling Dynamics and The Carib Youth Society provide solutions that increase self-awareness and assertiveness. For more information about our organization, please visit www.transdiasporanetwork.org.

©Transdiaspora Network, March 2010

March 10, 2010 No Comments

Issue XIII – January 2010

Introduction
Announcements
Voz de la Gente
Opinion – Reason Not to Forget: Fighting Passive Awareness, by Ashley Villarreal
In the News
In Other Words

When we first began work on this edition of the newsletter, we had planned to regale you with all of the exciting developments afoot in the world of Transdiaspora Network, including our new newsletter format. It’s a new year, a new decade, let’s toast our future with a renewed sense of optimism. But the landscape has shifted dramatically and tragically, and so it is with a heavy heart that we must take a moment to pause and reflect in the horror of our present moment. And let us take this moment, this quiet space for reflection, and fill it not only with our sadness at the tremendous loss and suffering of our families and friends in Haiti but also make it our own. Let this be a space for direct action, shared humanity, and the promise of renewal.

For the next two weeks, all donations made on the TDN homepage will directly fund disaster relief efforts in Haiti. In addition, Transdiaspora Network has activated an emergency response in partnership with Dwa Fanm and the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center. We are conducting a medical supplies drive through this Friday. Donations of medical supplies must be sealed and new, not expired or expiring. Aid workers particularly need wrapped sterile gauze, plastic tape, surgical tape, sealed antiseptic or analgesic medications, medical bottles, syringes, pipettes, and bags or media for dosing and dispensing medications. Please tape an inventory to the outside of the box describing box contents in detail. This inventory is vital as it will aid in items being moved to where they are most needed. Please bring your items to our Brooklyn drop-off point, located at the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center, 256 Kingston Avenue, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Dwa Fanm will be accepting donations at an alternate location in Brooklyn, 74A 4th Avenue at Bergen Street, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Friday.

Thank you for your generosity in this time of crisis.

Susan Wile Schwarz, MPH
Communications & Research Director

Translators Needed at Haitian Refugee Camp
Proyecto America is looking for Creole-Spanish and Creole-English translators to assist at a Haitian refugee camp at the border with the Dominican Republic. If you are interested in volunteering as a translator at this camp and can travel between January 29 and February 2, email usa@proyectoamerica.net or call (561) 729-2890 for more information.

TDN Photo Workshop Gives Voice to Teens
Beginning in February, Transdiaspora Network will offer a workshop entitled “Social Photography: Building HIV Prevention Through Youth Leadership.” In this workshop, led by new TDN team member Remy Kharbanda, students will learn rudimentary photography skills while gaining a deeper understanding of their surrounding community and HIV-related issues. Over a period of 10 weeks, participants will engage in thoughtful communication that will focus on connecting art and meaning to concrete topics of self-identity and healthcare. The workshop will encourage student self-expression, while also giving them the confidence to take on more powerful roles in transforming the way we think about HIV/AIDS. Students will share image boards they have created and talk to one another about their experiences with the images and participate in creative writing exercises. Prizes, including free metro cards every session and Target gift certificates, will be awarded at the end of the workshop, and students will leave with a better sense of how they can effect change in their own communities. TDN will work with schools to arrange credit for the class as community service hours.

Remy Kharbanda is a South Asian activist researcher and documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn. Her work focuses on law enforcement interactions with women of color, immigration issues, the war on terror, and displacement in the South Asian Diaspora. She is also one half of RFR, a New York City-based research partnership that works with community-based organizations to facilitate research projects aimed at supporting popular education and organizing efforts.

Newsletter Debuts Local News Section
Transdiaspora Network’s newsletter is changing. While we continue to share our exciting projects and developments, this issue of the newsletter introduces a brand new section: Voz de la Gente. This new section will feature up-to-the-moment, on-the-ground reporting from the community by our newest additions to the TDN team, local health news reporters Shahana Hanif and Ashley Villarreal. A Brooklyn native, Shahana Hanif attends Brooklyn College with the goal of becoming a medical journalist. As a pre-med and journalism student, she hopes to combine the two fields to bring health awareness and knowledge to the general public. Shahana was the president of her high school’s broadcasting studio, WBKS, where she wrote and delivered announcements and current events to students and faculty on a daily basis. Ashley Villarreal comes to us from the University of Arizona where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in print journalism, with minors in both psychology and sociology. During her studies she supported her university’s School of Journalism, as well as the National Association of Hispanic Journalists local chapter. As a reporter, she has focused on youth programs and education.

TDN Partners to Bring Music to the Sick
Last December, thank to the efforts of Transdiaspora Network’s president and founder, Ariel Rojas, Musicians On Call (MOC) was able to grow its Miami/South Florida network of volunteer musicians and deliver the healing power of music to the bedsides of patients. One of the organization’s new acquisitions, Cuban singer Gema Corredera, has already scheduled a performance at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital on February 9, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., in Hollywood, Florida.

Musicians On Call is a non-profit organization that brings live and recorded music to the bedsides of patients in healthcare facilities. MOC uses music to promote and complement the healing process for patients, families, and caregivers. They have programs in New York, Philadelphia, Nashville, and Miami and have played for over 177,000 individuals.

VOZ DE LA GENTE

Social Research on the Social Network: Youth, HIV/AIDS, and Facebook
By Shahana Hanif

Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. Two prolonged epidemics better known as HIV and AIDS. While these two medical terms continue to spread feverishly in our community, very little is actually known and understood about HIV/AIDS among many of our society’s youth. Falling under the youth category myself, this reporter knows HIV/AIDS is a growing problem, but at the same time, I know nothing about the surrounding issues. Before beginning my research for this assignment, my expectations concerning youth knowledge about the disease were extremely low. And while my suspicions weren’t entirely disproved, my research revealed another alarming trend among today’s young people.

I began my interviews using a broad and general approach through the help of Facebook. I wanted to focus on what teenagers know and their reactions to being asked about HIV/AIDS – to uncover the misconceptions and perceptions. Of the 319 friends I have on Facebook, only seven responded to my status update soliciting responses. Trying to nudge the few who reacted to actually respond took a total of two Facebook status updates. The assignment was a challenging one, especially because I was dealing with “bored” teenagers (ages 16-20) who “didn’t want to think intensely” about such a controversial topic. My first status read: “HIV/AIDS. What’s your take on it?” With 23 disappointing and unrelated comments, it was clear to me that the respondents viewed HIV/AIDS as a mere joke. My second Facebook status provided an incentive to respond: “If anyone wants their name/opinions/thoughts included in an article I’m writing, please message me for details. The topic is HIV/AIDS. I want to hear from you!” With a total of 50 comments from seven people excluding myself, a debate ensued, and I was absolutely shocked and surprised at some of the remarks.

So, what does the youth community know about HIV/AIDS? Better yet, what do they think they know? Sabia Hanif, 18 (and this reporter’s sister), describes HIV/AIDS as “an infection spread among promiscuous people and gay men.” She also adds, “it is a laughing matter to me because if you’re going to sleep around, you’re putting yourself in danger of being infected.” Roumwelle Sta. Ines, 17, views the epidemic as “another threat to humanity,” while pondering, “when you have HIV/AIDS, you don’t really suffer, do you? It isn’t like cancer, right?” Anonymous, 20, believes that “AIDS is cruel and an unusual punishment.”

Whether they view it with uncertainty, as a serious hazard, or in terms of the “gay disease” myth, it is clear that young people do recognize HIV/AIDS as a worldwide crisis, however, they lack substantial information about the disease.

After reading the comments on my status, I realized that there was a hidden reason why most of the students were vague when discussing the issue. Even though the truths about HIV/AIDS are relatively known, young people are not united or motivated to spend much time thinking about it, let alone to try and understand the illness thoroughly.

But, as Shuaraa Sullivan, 17, points out, “there are so many mediums in the United States that talk about HIV and AIDS awareness.” She adds, “look at all the television shows (True Life, The Real World, and Girlfriends), documentaries, clothing, and the Red campaign.” The information is out there, but as Jordan Sese, 19, states, “if the facts fall upon deaf ears or blind eyes, what’s the point?” Apathetic youth and the “if it doesn’t concern me, why should I care?” attitude are limiting the reach and effect of valuable HIV/AIDS knowledge about precautionary measures, sex education, and support groups and organizations.

How can we bring an end to apathy? Unfortunately, apathy cannot be banished or removed from society. Those of us who acknowledge the facts and are aware of the growing problem, it is time we come together as a community to fight HIV/AIDS. Without leadership, commitment, and a strong voice, the crisis will remain a crisis. Feeling invincible is not the key to survival – awareness, education, and protection are the solutions to survival.

What You Thought You Knew About Sex and HIV
By Ashley Villarreal

Once we arrive at adulthood, we tend to think we know everything about sex. We’ve sat through the long and often boring sex ed classes in school, gained a lot of information from our friends, and maybe even had that sensitive discussion with the parents. But sex education does not stop just because we’ve survived puberty. As birth control becomes more accessible, and STDs and HIV are found to affect even younger populations, it is increasingly important to continue learning. New facts and findings surface all the time, some of them contradicting what we already know, others getting lost in our hurry to grow up. What you didn’t know might surprise you. Below are some commonly held beliefs about sex and infection. Test yourself.

People are now having sex at younger ages.
False. Teens are actually waiting longer these days to have sex. Studies done by the Guttmacher Institute in New York, an organization that works with programs on reproductive health, have shown that the number of teens having sex before age 15 has decreased an average of six percent since 1995. Though many people believe that kids today are having sex around ages 14 and 15, by age 13 only thirteen percent of teens have had sex, and by age 19, only nine out of ten teenagers have had sex.

It is possible to have had unprotected sex with only a couple people that tested negative for sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and eventually find out you have an STD.
True. According to the American Social Health Association, more than half of all people will contract an STD/STI at some point in their lives. However, STDs affect everyone differently. Currently it is estimated that one in five people have genital herpes, with 90 percent of those infected unaware since the disease can live without ever causing any physical symptoms. The Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is also estimated to affect more than 75 percent of people throughout their lifetime. Diseases mature at different stages and will affect people differently depending on their health and genetic make-up. In addition, many STDs have a late onset and may not present symptoms for years after initial contraction. For these reasons, some people may never show signs of infection even when tested. The only way to avoid contracting an STD is to use condoms the right way every time that you have sex.

You can’t get a disease from oral or anal sex without ejaculation.
False. Although the chances are smaller with oral sex than they are for vaginal or anal sex, it can happen. HIV is transferred through blood or semen. If you are performing oral sex and are infected, you may have tiny cuts in your mouth that you aren’t aware of that can transfer a disease to another person. The same way you can get pregnant from pre-ejaculate (the semen that sometimes secretes from the penis before an actual orgasm) you can get HIV through performing oral sex. The tissue of the anus is thin and fluids can pass more easily into the body. Tears in this region can also occur more easily, allowing for HIV and STD transmission. Even if there is no climax there may be semen, which can transfer to an uninfected person during any kind of sex. To be safe you should always use condoms or barrier methods preventing skin-to-skin contact.

Condoms don’t really protect against HIV and STDs, so if you have a disease, your sex life is basically over.
False. This doesn’t mean it isn’t possible, it just means even if you are infected, you can still be sexually active with an uninfected partner. According to data from Avert, an international AIDS charity, if condoms are used correctly and consistently they are “highly effective in providing protection against HIV.” In a European study that surveyed couples with one person HIV-positive and another not, the 123 couples that reported using condoms consistently during sex showed no incidences of infection. On the other hand, another group of 122 couples that reported inconsistent condom use, showed 12 of the couples became infected. Although condoms can break, the majority of instances of infection are due to ineffective use, Avert says.

If you have unprotected sex you will get pregnant, acquire an STD, or get HIV.
False. There are always risks, complications, luck, and circumstances that come into play. Even if a man ejaculates into a woman during sex, it doesn’t mean she will get pregnant. If you have sex with someone who has HIV, there is not 100 percent certainty that your partner will become infected. This might sound like good news and you might be thinking, “okay, so I can go throw my condoms away?” Not true. When you have protected sex the same is true. On the package, birth control pills say they carry a 99% effectiveness rate. That means you can still get pregnant even if you are using the pill. The best way to go is to use condoms at the same time you are using birth control. While some STDs are treatable, others can change your life drastically. Many people can live life with HIV without complications, but others will die of AIDS. While all this protection and prevention might make sex sound like a whole lot more work, you have to be realistic. When nothing in life is 100 percent guaranteed do you really want to leave your life up to luck?

OPINION

Reason Not to Forget: Fighting Passive Awareness
By Ashley Villarreal

According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, one of the leading resources on health care issues, less than a year after the government increased its estimates for HIV infections for the next year, a survey of American opinions showed that concern about HIV “as a personal risk” had “fallen dramatically.” What happened? AIDS has increasingly become only about Africa and the gay community, and many people believe they are not at risk. Yet, Central Brooklyn has about the fifth highest mortality rate from AIDS in all of New York. It’s closer to home than we think, and with rates of disease rising, protecting against infection should be a concern for everyone. Clearly, it’s time to make some changes.

The first opportunity for change is the way the uninfected community thinks about the disease. Some people still believe they can become infected through kissing. There are hundreds of myths that exist that haven’t been falsified in the eyes of the public. And largely missing from this conversation are the voices of people living with AIDS. The only way to de-stigmatize something is to make it familiar. Instead of writing off the infected in the media, we need to give voice to the many people living with HIV/AIDS. The public needs to understand that although the disease is quite dangerous, they don’t have to live in fear. When people are afraid they put the problem out of their mind. We need a solution to the problem, not a reason to forget.

The next thing we need to change is the way we educate those already living with AIDS. One in nine children in America with the disease are living in Brooklyn, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We have to do something more than tell people to wear condoms or get tested. What we often tell children is what the media gives us: passive awareness. There needs to be analysis, improvement plans, and people engaging with each other. Instead of simply telling students to wear condoms or be celibate, we need to talk about why students don’t wear condoms and how you can still be sexually active if you want to. When people think they have no options, they become fatalistic and then they give up. The media needs to personalize these issues and give realistic solutions so people can continue living their lives, while understanding they are part of making those solutions work.

The overall picture for Brooklyn should be the same as in every community, despite higher risk of infection. The two problems I addressed are not the only issues. Language barriers for immigrant communities and financial obstacles still stand in the way of receiving treatment, even if you know the facts. These barriers may be the biggest drawback yet, but I think the solution comes with collaboration. It is easier to change yourself than change the system. If we can start with ourselves the rest with follow.

UN Lauds US and SKorea for Lifting HIV Travel Ban

By The Associated Press

The United Nations praised the United States and South Korea on Monday for lifting travel bans on people with HIV and urged 57 other countries with travel restrictions to end them quickly.

President Barack Obama announced in October that the U.S. would overturn a 22-year-old travel ban against people with HIV, and the new rule eliminating the ban came into force on Monday. South Korea eliminated travel restrictions for people with the HIV virus, which causes AIDS, on Jan. 1.

Michel Sidibe, executive director of UNAIDS, which coordinates the U.N.’s AIDS response, called the policy changes ”a victory for human rights on two sides of the globe.”

Ending the restrictions means travelers who are HIV positive can now enter both countries.

In the United States, the ban has kept out thousands of students, tourists and refugees and has complicated the adoption of children with HIV. No major international AIDS conference has been held in the U.S. since 1993, because HIV-positive activists and researchers could not enter the country.

In 1987, at a time of widespread fear and ignorance about HIV, the Department of Health and Human Services added HIV to the list of communicable diseases that disqualified a person from entering the U.S. The department tried in 1991 to reverse its decision but was opposed by Congress, which went the other way two years later and made HIV infection the only medical condition explicitly listed under immigration law as grounds for inadmissibility to the U.S.

When Obama announced in October that the ban would be overturned, he commended Congress and former President George W. Bush for starting the process to eliminate the ban in 2008 and said his administration was ”finishing the job.”

”It’s a step that will encourage people to get tested and get treatment, it’s a step that will keep families together, and it’s a step that will save lives,” Obama said. ”If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it.”

[Excerpted from The New York Times, January 5, 2010]

IN OTHER WORDS

The fact the world’s poor are calling upon us to help is a marker, in my view, of the limitless potential of human solidarity.
-Paul Farmer

Transdiaspora Network^TM is a New York-based human capacity building non-profit organization conducting HIV prevention awareness and community-based, culturally aware preventive mentoring for a population of youth at high risk. In addition, it facilitates identification of community resources, empowerment based interventions, and educational approaches to increase health literacy. Our Afro-Caribbean Dance Mediation, Storytelling Dynamics and The Carib Youth Society provide solutions that increase self-awareness and assertiveness. For more information about our organization, please visit www.transdiasporanetwork.org.

©Transdiaspora Network, January 2010

January 19, 2010 3 Comments

Issue XII – November 2009

Introduction
Announcements
Opinion – Plan B: Abstinence Meets Reality, by Sylvia Lyew
In the News
In Other Words

As another year draws to a close, we have time to reflect on all the developments that have transpired in our world, in our nation, and most importantly, right here in our own communities. This past year has been one of great change and real hope. Scientists have made promising strides towards the development of an effective AIDS vaccine. We swore in our first African-American President. And at Transdiaspora Network, we have helped change the lives of a few teenagers right here in Brooklyn. While some may look at this last accomplishment as small potatoes, to TDN grads like Brandon, Shanhai, Gena, Christal, Liza, and Niambi, the change we have enabled them to make in their own lives has been anything but small. It is everything. It is the world.

We want nothing more than to continue changing our world, one person at a time, but in order to do so, we desperately need your support. Since our inception, we have been showered with praise from everyone, from politicians to prevention experts to our very own participants, for our cutting-edge approach and staggering results. And while we appreciate all the recognition, we continue to struggle to fund our direct programming. Even modest donations of $10, $25, or $50 have a huge impact on small community based organizations like TDN. So as the holiday season approaches, please take a moment to reflect on the past but, more importantly, look to the future.

Please click here to make a tax deductible donation to directly support our youth programs.

Thank you and Happy Holidays!

Susan Wile Schwarz, MPH
Communications & Research Director

“Pirate of the Caribbean” Reports on TDN Halloween Carnival
By Sophie Cardona, TDN Treasurer

We are happy to report that Transdiaspora Network’s fall fundraiser, a colorful Halloween Carnival bash, was a great success in spite of stiff competition from the World Series and a host of other celebrations around the city. A festive crowd turned out to support our preventive mission and enjoy an upbeat evening filled with performances, prizes, and dangerously delicious concoctions courtesy of LeBlon Cachaca.

The Capoeira group Motumbaxe! didn’t disappoint with its powerful performance of the Brazilian martial artform, infusing the evening with an electric vibe, and the percussion band Bloco Quibombo got hips and feet moving with their contagious drums and throbbing beats.

The costume contest also drew lots of laughter and applause, pitting Wonder Woman against John Travolta, Pocahontas against Little Red Riding Hood, all in good spirit of course. We wish to thank everyone who participated in making this evening so special by coming out in the middle of the week to support TDN’s work – our wonderful performers, DJ Mousky who spun samba, funk, reggae, house, and merengue all night, as well as our hosts at Boucarou Lounge and all the generous businesses who donated items for our raffle.

Everyone’s contribution of time, energy, ideas, and smiles made this an event to remember. Make sure you check out our pictures!

AIDS Vaccine Shows Promises for the First Time
In late September, doctors reported that a new AIDS vaccine had shown some success for the first time, protecting a significant minority of humans against the disease. The results of a six-year clinical trial in Thailand involving over 16,000 participants, showed that participants receiving the vaccine became infected at a rate one-third lower than those who had not received the vaccine. While this study is the most promising development in the search for an effective AIDS vaccine, significant questions remain for scientists to answer, including why those who were infected despite vaccination had as much virus in their blood as those who became infected without. “I don’t want to use a word like ‘breakthrough,’ but I don’t think there’s any doubt that this is a very important result,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is one of the trial’s backers.

“For more than 20 years now, vaccine trials have essentially been failures,” Dr. Fauci said. “Now it’s like we were groping down an unlit path, and a door has been opened. We can start asking some very important questions.”

Help Develop the National AIDS Strategy
Over the past month, young people across the country have helped shape a new National AIDS Strategy. The White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) has been meeting with community members in nine cities to get their input, with four more meetings still to come.

Whether or not you plan to attend one of the officials HIV/AIDS Town Hall Meetings, you can make your voice heard and help shape the future of HIV and AIDS policy in America. You may submit your comments and recommendations online through a form on the ONAP website or upload a document that you have created through November 26.

In 2004, young people ages 13-24 in the United States made up 13% of new HIV infections. It’s vital that the National AIDS Strategy meets the needs of this group.

The HIV/AIDS Town Hall Meeting for New York is scheduled for December 4.

If you need help compiling suggestions, Advocates for Youth has put together a list of policy recommendations that you can use as a starting point.

TDN Welcomes FEGS Interns
This winter, Transdiaspora Network has formalized a partnership with FEGS Health and Human Services System that will provide internships to several students enrolled in its Education and Youth program. The FEGS program collaborates with the Department of Education to provide employment and career training to overage and under-credited students at risk of dropping out of high school.

TDN will provide interns the opportunity to perform as local health news reporters while gaining community leadership skills through enrollment in our regular programming cycles: Train-the-Trainer program and Carib Youth Society. The interns will be responsible for reporting on local TDN-relevant news; contacting Brooklyn-based hospitals, clinics, health centers, and community-based organizations to gather information about preventive programs; and writing, editing, and presenting health-related local stories in this bi-monthly newsletter. FEGS Health and Human Services System is one of New York City’s largest health-related social services organizations. The purpose of the program is to provide internship opportunities for youth that enable them to develop their career interests and goals in a professional work setting.

New Search Engine Helps You Support TDN While You Search, Shop
Thanks to GoodSearch and GoodShop, Transdiaspora Network can now earn a donation through Internet searches and purchases from friends like you. GoodSearch is a new Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would any search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and support our mission through the click of your mouse. GoodShop is a new online shopping mall that donates up to 30% of each purchase to your designated cause. Hundreds of stores including Amazon, Target, Gap, Best Buy, eBay, Macy’s and Barnes & Noble have already signed on to participate.

Additionally, if you download the GoodSearch – Transdiaspora Network toolbar, TDN will earn money every time you shop and search online – even if you using GoodShop or GoodSearch first. Click here to add the Transdiaspora Network toolbar.

New Development Team Joins TDN

Transdiaspora Network has invited four new team members, Holly Benavides, Kyrie Kowalik, Vui Ung, and Emilie Traub, to work with us as part of our new development team. The team will be responsible for identifying and accessing resources through individual, organizational, and corporate giving as well as pursuing grant opportunities. Thanks to these important new additions, we will not only be able to enhance our existing youth programming but actually grow and create greater opportunities for more and more at-risk youth in our communities.

Join TDN for Day of Activism on World AIDS Day
On December 1 from 1PM to 4PM, Transdiaspora Network will join with Dwa Fanm at the Brooklyn Public Library Pacific Branch (25 Fourth Ave.) to commemorate World AIDS Day as part of Dwa Fanm’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. The event will feature a guest speaker talking about HIV/AIDS and its impact on women and youth.

Dwa Fanm (“Women’s Rights” in Haitian Creole) is a human rights organization committed to empowering all women and girls with the freedom to define and control their own lives. Through service, education, advocacy and grassroots programs, Dwa Fanm works to end discrimination, violence, and other forms of injustice here in New York and abroad.

Social Attitudes Survey Participants Needed
Research shows that your personal identity affects your attitudes and social behaviors. Counseling, a field that explores personal identity and is also connected to storytelling, can be an effective way to “Talk Things Out.” Currently, most literature and research miss the unique cultural experiences of people from the Caribbean and of Caribbean descent, especially the youth. Yet, for persons of Caribbean descent, experiences with identity development within the United States can feel different from those who may look like them, but have a different social background. The impact this difference may have on self-awareness of one’s body, body image, and relationships is important for the implementation of an effective HIV prevention strategy.

Our goal at Transdiaspora Network is to find different venues to promote health and responsible choices with your body and to pass the word along through culturally relevant community initiative. What better way to start than to learn more about how you see yourself?

Supporting counseling research can do this. So please log on and participate in this important research because you have much to say and the world has much to know. Want to know more about this research initiative? You can email sph2008@columbia.edu.

Click here to participate.

Crown Heights Group Reaches Out to Disconnected Youth
A new coalition of Crown Heights community members, organizations, and leaders formed to increase youth engagement in the Crown Heights community. Organized by Assemblyman Karim Camara and Council Member Letitia James, the “I am C.H.A.N.G.E.” (Crown Heights Area Next Generation’s Empowerment) group targets disconnected youth, which they have defined as people ages 16-24 who are both out of school and out of work. With this demographic in mind, the coalition will plan a series of events to reach out to this group, encouraging them to build relationships and connect with the resources available to them in the community. The first of these events will be a youth town hall meeting on gun violence, which will give young people a chance to speak out about issues that are relevant to them.

The town hall will be held during the first week of December at Marcus Garvey Nursing Home. Call the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center at (718) 773-6886 for more information or to get involved. See pictures of the first meeting here.

Caribbean Sees Drop in HIV/AIDS Cases, Deaths
The number of infected people in the Caribbean is on the decline. The drop is credited to a massive public education campaign and increased condom usage. A similar decline in AIDS-related deaths is thought to be a result of improved access to care and treatment. Despite this heartening news, “the figures are still very high for such a small region,” said Carl Browne, Coordinating Unit Director of Pancaribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP). According to PANCAP, the Caribbean last year recorded 17,000 new HIV infections – down from 20,000 in 2007. The Caribbean region is home to 230,000 people with HIV.

Senate Finance Committee Approves Ab-Only Funding
At the end of September, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) pushed through an amendment in the Senate Finance Committee by a vote of 12-11 authorizing $50 million in funding for abstinence-only programs as part of Health Care Reform- despite over clear evidence from the last decade years that abstinence-only programs do not prevent teen pregnancy or prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections. Join Advocates for Youth in asking your Senators to strip the Hatch Amendment from Health Care Reform.

Number of People Getting Lifesaving HIV Drugs Rises
In a significant advancement, about 42% of people in the developing world who are infected with the AIDS virus and should be taking antiretroviral drugs are now receiving them, according to a new report by the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, and UNICEF. The greatest increase has been in sub-Saharan Africa, where the numbers are up by more than one-third from the previous year.

Similar gains have been made in testing pregnant women and persuading infected ones to take antiretrovirals to prevent transmitting the virus to their babies. Overall, however, nearly six in 10 infected pregnant women are not given that option. “It is an incredible step forward compared to where we were in the early 2000s,” said Paul De Lay, deputy executive director of UNAIDS.

Although the number of people being treated is rising, it is not keeping pace with the epidemic. For every three people starting therapy, five become infected. In all, about 33 million people are living with the AIDS virus worldwide, with women shouldering the majority of the burden.

Reform Receives Thumbs Up From Caribbean Community
Following President Obama’s address to the nation advocating on behalf of health care reform, he received overwhelming support from New York’s Caribbean immigrant community, especially among administrators and professionals. The President’s unprecedented appeal served both to convince local skeptics of the urgency for sweeping reform extending care to the poor as well as reenergize and mobilize those who have long been working in the trenches.

OPINION
By Sylvia Lyew

Once upon a time, there was a generation of people who didn’t have to worry about STDs and teen pregnancy wasn’t really a concern. As society became more educated and highly industrialized, values have shifted, creating vast differences. Not all of these shifting values are problematic, but they can quickly become so when fun turns into disaster.

I remember being a teenager and screaming to my parents, “You just don’t want me to have fun! You’re so old-fashioned!” Probably the majority of youth have said something similar to their parents at least once during their adolescent years. Many adults want to protect the younger generation from falling into the same pitfalls they did when they were their age. Could this be why society is stuck in “Plan A?”

The classic Plan A includes abstinence and the distribution of condoms or other means of birth control. So why isn’t Plan A working? Pregnancy rates rise and drop, yet STDs increase every year. How can we effectively teach youth that it’s not that we don’t want them to enjoy life, but to think about the consequences before they act. This bit of advice can apply to any area in their lives. It is because we don’t live in a perfect world that we need to always have Plan B, and also, Plan C.

Our goal should include encouraging adolescents to have a Plan B. This includes thinking outside the perimeters of, “oh, I’m not going to do that…” Ok, so then you need to have a fallback plan in case you find yourself in that situation. This is the most difficult decision to consciously make: to listen to that inner-voice telling you to stop. If Plan A is all about protection from not getting into a situation in the first place, then Plan B has to stop the situation from becoming a dangerous one. Plan B can also include having other protective measures in place or possible solutions such as going out to public places or inviting others over to your home instead of just your partner. Or Plan B may be something very simple like having someone calling them randomly during each hour. And you have to return the phone call within a few minutes for accountability. The person can be another mutual friend. Whomever. Just the thought of someone calling would make a lot young people think twice about their actions.

It’s not that we don’t want teens to enjoy life; we want them to make responsible choices because it affects everyone. When one person in society is affected, we all are affected. AIDS is a global concern. STDs are a global concern. Unwanted pregnancy is a global concern. These issues are problematic. This takes us to Plan C.

It’s like a triangle: Plan A is to educate and prevent, Plan B is the back-up plan for when we forget (which would literally mean to stop and cease what you are doing), and Plan C is the community. We are Plan C – clinics, organizations, families that are there for support when Plans A and B fall short. Together we can use our knowledge and experience to encourage our youth to plan ahead before they find themselves in that unwanted situation.

Sylvia Lyew is the Program Coordinator for TDN.

Fighting HIV, a Community at a Time

By Susan Okie

Federal health officials are preparing a plan to study a bold new strategy to stop the spread of the AIDS virus: routinely testing virtually every adult in a community, and promptly treating those found to be infected.

The strategy is called “test and treat,” and officials say the two sites for the three-year study will be the District of Columbia and the Bronx – locales with some of the nation’s highest rates of infection with human immunodeficiency virus.

The officials emphasize that this is just a first step. The goal is not to measure whether “test and treat” actually works to slow an epidemic, but whether such a strategy can even be carried out, given the many barriers to being tested and getting medical care.

On the path from infection to treatment, “we lose people at every single step,” said Dr. Shannon L. Hader, director of the HIV/AIDS administration at [Washington DC's] Department of Health.

And even when infection is diagnosed, “getting people from the field to the doctor is the hardest component,” said Angela Fulwood Wood, deputy director of Family and Medical Counseling Service, an agency that operates a mobile HIV testing clinic here. Often, she added, someone who has just tested positive “can walk off that day and decide, ‘I’m going to pretend that never happened.’”

The C.D.C. recommends routine, voluntary HIV testing for everyone ages 13 to 64 as a part of regular medical care. But experts say the recommendation is not being followed in many hospitals, clinics, and medical practices.

Researchers planning the study have been meeting with hospital and health officials in Washington and the Bronx to discuss making HIV testing a routine part of visits to doctors, clinics, and emergency rooms.

Dr. Fauci said testing might also be widely offered in nonmedical settings. “When you have a campaign like this, you’ve got to pull out all the stops,” he said. “How are we going to get everybody? Should we have testing in Wal-Mart? Should we have testing at Nathan’s hot dog places?”

The test and treat approach is part of a broader shift toward using medicines for HIV to prevent infection…Studies tracking heterosexual couples in which one person is infected have found that after highly effective drugs for HIV became available, uninfected partners were far less likely to contract the virus. Trials are under way to give HIV drugs as a protective measure to uninfected people at high risk.

Current treatment guidelines do not call for antiretroviral drugs until there is evidence of progressive damage to the immune system – generally, until the number of CD4 cells, the white blood cells attacked by the virus, drops to 350 per cubic milliliter or lower. (A normal count is at least 1,000.)

The guidelines are intended to balance the treatment benefits with the side effects from the drugs and the possibility of fostering drug resistance in the virus. But there is mounting evidence that early treatment keeps infected people healthy longer.

And that could have much wider benefits, researchers say. Last January, Dr. Reuben Granich and colleagues at the World Health Organization published a provocative study using mathematical models to predict the effects of universal testing and immediate treatment on a severe H.I.V. epidemic among heterosexuals. They reported that such a policy, if combined with prevention efforts like promotion of condoms and male circumcision, could virtually eliminate transmission of the virus within 10 years.

So far, despite some ambitious efforts, no city or country has come close to achieving universal testing for H.I.V. and treatment for all those infected. But researchers and public health officials are eager to test the potential of such a strategy for stemming the epidemic.

Although the latest drugs have far fewer side effects, many patients still fear that “going on the medicines means I’m starting to get sick,” she added. A critical component of test and treat will be conveying the message: “Don’t wait until you’re sick. Do it early.”

In New York City, the Bronx has the highest AIDS death rate of any borough, even though Manhattan has a higher rate of cases. Dr. Monica Sweeney, the city’s assistant health commissioner for H.I.V. prevention and control, said that was because people in the Bronx tended to wait longer to be tested and get a diagnosis.

In the first half of 2008, Dr. Sweeney said, “more than a quarter of the people who were tested in the Bronx had AIDS by the time they received their diagnosis.” By contrast, she added, people who are tested and treated before the immune system has suffered extensive damage “can expect almost a normal life expectancy.”

[Excerpted from The New York Times, October 26, 2009]

IN OTHER WORDS

There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life — happiness, freedom, and peace of mind — are always attained by giving them to someone else.

–Peyton Conway March

Transdiaspora Network^TM is a New York-based human capacity building non-profit organization conducting HIV prevention awareness and community-based, culturally aware preventive mentoring for a population of youth at high risk. In addition, it facilitates identification of community resources, empowerment based interventions, and educational approaches to increase health literacy. Our Afro-Caribbean Dance Mediation, Storytelling Dynamics and The Carib Youth Society provide solutions that increase self-awareness and assertiveness. For more information about our organization, please visit www.transdiasporanetwork.org.

©Transdiaspora Network, November 2009

November 17, 2009 No Comments

Issue XI – September 2009

Introduction
Announcements
Opinion – Attention: Homophobia is Bad for your Health!, by Anathaleo S. Blake
In the News
In Other Words

While Senator Edward Kennedy will likely be remembered as a man of both great achievements and great failings, nowhere is his legacy for greatness more apparent than in the changes he brought to health care delivery and access in this country. Senator Kennedy was instrumental in protecting the privacy of medical records, building community health centers, providing access to care for unemployed adults and low-income children, and providing services for those with HIV and AIDS. It is with great sadness and a renewed sense of duty that we mark the passing of this lifelong public servant.

On a happier note, August marked our second annual End-of-Summer Caribbean Dance Party, which brought together our friends from throughout the city for a night of dancing, drinking, and mingling. Following the successful party, TDN Board Chairman penned the following note to Founder and President Ariel Rojas:

Dear Ariel,

I send along my heart-felt gratitude to everyone that attended Transdiaspora Network’s End-of-Summer party. You can really tell from the pictures that everyone had a good time.

The generous support we received will help TDN continue in its mission to provide culturally oriented HIV prevention to at-risk Caribbean youth in Brooklyn. Every time I attend one of TDN’s gatherings, I’m very impressed by the people I meet, their stories, and the unique ways each individual strives to make a difference in his or her community. TDN has brought together a truly wonderful group of people around an imperative cause. I’m proud to be a part of that.

Thanks for passing along my message.

Best,

Ameet Kabrawala
Board Chairman

Thanks to the support of friends like you, our second year of programming with Brooklyn youth kicks off in just a couple weeks. If you were unable to attend the party and would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to help further our work, you may do so here.

Susan Wile Schwarz, MPH
Communications & Research Director

OPINION: Attention: Homophobia is Bad for your Health!

TDN Welcomes New Staff

This month, Sylvia Lyew and Yalini Dream join Transdiaspora Network as our new Program Coordinator and Dance Mediator/Storyteller, respectively. Raised in New York City, Sylvia left the city to pursue a Bachelor’s in English Professional Writing with a minor in Psychology at Oakwood University in Alabama. She went on to complete a Masters in Community Counseling at Andrews University in Michigan and graduated in 2008. Expanding her global interests, she moved to Chile where she worked as an English tutor and volunteer Resident Assistant at a Chilean university. Having returned from that experience, Sylvia is continuing her passion of working with youth by joining TDN. This fall, Sylvia will introduce a pregnancy prevention initiative to complement TDN’s successful HIV/AIDS prevention program. Yalini’s work covers a wide range of themes. The most popular topics include arts and activism, art as prayer, celebration of culture, desire and spirituality, diaspora, diversity, healing, shattering stereotypes, among others. With their experience and dedication, both Sylvia and Yalini are invaluable additions to the TDN team.

TDN Picks Up Paint Brush for Anti-Gun Mural
On August 4, Transdiaspora Network joined with the community to paint an anti-gun violence mural on Brooklyn Avenue and Prospect Place. Youth from across Brooklyn have been learning about gun violence all summer and planning the mural design.

Many individuals and organizations worked to bring this mural into being. The Crown Heights Community Mediation Center, one of the driving forces behind the mural’s conception, has been for working for the past three years with a committee of Crown Heights leaders to address the social factors that lead to gun violence in the community. Simultaneously, a group of young adults has been working with Assemblyman Karim Camara to address this same issue. This summer, these groups partnered with the American Friends Service Committee, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, Groundswell Community Mural Project, and the Damon S. Allen Foundation Against Violence to work with 16 youths and two artists to create this mural on the Alternate Learning Center wall.

StoryCorps Launches Historias Project
Later this month, StoryCorps will launch its ambitious new StoryCorps Historias project. The goal of this new initiative is to record more than 700 interviews across the country, reflecting the rich diversity of the Latino experience. StoryCorps Historias is launched in partnership with the Latino Public Radio Consortium, Latino USA, and the U.S. Latino and Latina World War II Oral History
Project.

The project’s national launch will take place September 24 in Washington D.C. followed by a New York City launch at El Museo del Barrio, tentatively scheduled for September 30. Transdiaspora Network has been invited to be a community partner in this initiative.

Newly Discovered Antibodies Give New Hope for AIDS Vaccine
In late August, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and affiliated researchers announced the discovery of two powerful new antibodies to HIV that provides clues to bringing down the virus. The findings are the result of a worldwide effort launched by IAVI in 2006 to find new antibodies that neutralize a wide variety of strains of HIV circulating in the world. The study was published in the journal Science.

An effective AIDS vaccine would have to work against the many versions of HIV circulating in different populations. The two new broadly neutralizing antibodies are the first to be discovered in more than a decade and the first to be isolated from donors in developing countries where the pandemic is most virulent. Now researchers will use the newly discovered weakness to guide new approaches to designing an AIDS vaccine.

“The findings are an exciting advance because now we’ve got a new, potentially better target on HIV to focus our efforts for vaccine design,” said Wayne Koff, senior vice president of research and development at IAVI. “And having identified this one, we’re set up to find more.”

Caribbean Women’s Health Fair
Caribbean Women’s Health Association will host its second annual Back-to-School Health Fair on Saturday, September 26 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The fair will take place at 21 Snyder Avenue, between Flatbush and Bedford Avenues in Brooklyn. For more information call (718) 774-1127.

CHAMP Hosts Strategy Call
On July 15, CHAMP Network hosted a strategy conference call to discuss developments and strategies in HIV screening, targeted testing, and the challenge of expanding testing in distinct communities. The call featured speakers from the National Black Gay Men’s Advocacy Coalition, Family Health International, and Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, among other experts who presented on the call.
For complete notes from the call, go to Strategy Lab.

Low-Income HIV-Positive New Yorkers Face Housing Challenges
About 30,000 low-income people receive housing support from New York’s HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA), overseen by the city’s Human Resources Administration (HRA). Even with Social Security Disability Insurance, many HIV-positive New Yorkers are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. One recipient, who must make ends meet with only $300 for the month after paying rent on her apartment in the Bronx, highlighted these difficulties. “It’s hard because you have to buy toiletries and use public transportation to get medicine. It’s just me with no family support,” she explained. “Some people tell me that I should find a cheaper apartment. But where is that supposed to be?”

Last month, Manhattan State Senator Tom Duane, who is openly gay and HIV positive, brought his proposed legislation enacting a 30% rent cap for poor New Yorkers with HIV/AIDS to the floor of the legislature. The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 52 to 1 and is pending in the Assembly where it’s slated for a vote during a special session this month. The measure still faces the threat of automatic veto by Gov. Paterson based on cost.

Funding Changes Pose Challenges to Community Providers
The city has proposed a plan to create a Core Coordination Program for people living with HIV/AIDS, but critics contend the new plan will consolidate funding inside large hospitals and health clinics, sidelining many of the community-based providers that are the first-line of health care access for many of New York’s marginalized communities such as legal and illegal immigrants and communities of color.

International Collaboration Tackles Rising HIV/AIDS Epidemic among Fishermen in Malaysia
Doctors from the Social Intervention Group at Columbia University School of Social Work have partnered with Dr. Adeeba Kamarulzaman and the Center of Excellence for Research in AIDS (CERIA) at the University of Malaya on a study the HIV/AIDS epidemic among commercial fishermen from Malaysia and neighboring countries.

Recent data estimates that the HIV prevalence rate among commercial fishermen in Malaysia is ten times higher than that among the country’s general population, due in part to the availability of illicit drugs and the harsh working conditions.

The new research project aims to examine social and structural determinants, such as drug use, social networks, migration, and poverty, that are contributing to the HIV epidemic among fishermen. This will be the first such epidemiological study among fishermen and can provide the basis for the development of scientifically based prevention strategies and policies.

Fed HIV Prevention Officials Indicate Need for Changed Approach
Speaking at the Obama Administration’s first national HIV summit, top public health leaders and community activists called for a paradigm shift in HIV prevention approaches in an effort to reduce HIV transmission in the U.S.

Summit speakers spoke of the need for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to work with partners to develop and implement a strategic scale-up of comprehensive, combination HIV-prevention strategies in order to see population-level improvements in new infection rates. Any new approach must expand on empirically supported interventions, invest in research and evaluation, and address salient social factors such as lack of housing, mass imprisonment, poverty, and social marginalization.

According to conference attendees, there were indications that the CDC may be ready to seek significant changes in federal prevention policy and programs. However, the present economy poses additional obstacles to obtaining the necessary funding.

By Anathaleo S. Blake

When a friend of mine sent me the link to a washingtonpost.com article entitled “Gays Live and Die in Fear in Jamaica” from July 20, 2009 (AP), I wasn’t particularly enthused about reading it. The rest of the world may just be catching on to the fervency of Jamaican homophobia, but it is not new to me. As a Jamaican immigrant living in New York City who is also gay, I am well-acquainted with the nature of the heterosexist terrorist regime currently operating in Jamaica and in its reconstituted immigrant enclaves the world over. Nonetheless, I read it. The article recounts tales of violence and murder, exile and expatriation, angry mobs, archaic laws, and complicity by the Jamaican government. A survivor of one of these incidents describes his daily experience of panic attacks, anxiety, and hypervigilance as he struggles to perform his daily activities. These symptoms are common among people suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is also common among survivors of terrorist states. None of this was news to me, unfortunately..

My own experience as a gay Jamaican acquainted me with these realities a long time ago. I did, however, find something novel amid the facts and figures I had become inured to: the notion that homophobia was contributing to hesitation/reticence around prostate cancer screening and treatment among Jamaican men. In the article, Dr. Trevor Tulloch states, “The dread of homosexuality is so all-encompassing that many Jamaican men refuse to get digital rectal examinations (DRE) for prostate cancer, even those whose disease is advanced…. Because it is a homophobic society, there’s such a fear of the sexual implications of having the exam that men won’t seek out help.” My initial reaction was laughter; the notion was wholly absurd to me. I then experienced a visceral sense of vindication. I threw magnanimity to the wind. If the hate in these men’s hearts was so comprehensive as to have it adversely affect their own health, then they deserve to reap the benefits of their ignorance. That prize, of course, is cancer, and after my initial reaction, I realized that no one, no matter how hateful or ignorant, deserves that.

Cancer outcomes are influenced by so many factors. Yet, in this instance, access to healthcare, painful biopsies, or inconclusive Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) tests are not part of the discourse. Instead, heterosexism is the culprit. It is often the case that values inform health decisions and outcomes (e.g. abstinence-only education, abortion, stem-cell research, euthanasia etc). The potential correlation between the fear of DRE and the prevalence of prostate cancer in this population differs greatly from the aforementioned examples in a significant way. Most, if not all, of the examples above are rooted in the contentious interplay between religion and science. Jamaica is a majority Christian nation. The relationship between Christianity and homosexuality is dynamic, to put it mildly, and continues to transform even as I write this. The historic Judeo-Christian condemnation of homosexuality and the legacy of British imperialism still inform behavior and conventional morality to an extent. This manifests as homophobia and heterosexism. Jamaica is also a very poor nation with an education system that leaves a lot to be desired. In trying to understand the ostensibly novel correlation between cancer and heterosexism, I get stuck and cannot quite figure it out from here. The notion of denying another person their human rights by upholding heterosexist values is abhorrent on its face, but when that same paradigm allows for the kind of wanton, self-injurious delusion that getting a DRE is inherently “gay” or “makes” the recipient gay, then it’s time to re-evaluate the original position. All Jamaicans are not hate-mongers. However the ones who are subscribing to heterosexist/homophobic ideals should realize that they are not only hurting their gay compatriots anymore. It has become deleterious to the heterosexists’ own health. Apparently homophobia, if untreated, will kill.

Anathaleo S. Blake is a human services professional and perennial student. He lives in NYC and can be reached at asb2156@gmail.com.

IN THE NEWS

Officials Weigh Circumcision to Fight H.I.V. Risk

By Roni Caryn Rabin

Public health officials are considering promoting routine circumcision for all baby boys born in the United States to reduce the spread of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.

The topic is a delicate one that has already generated controversy, even though a formal draft of the proposed recommendations, due out from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by the end of the year, has yet to be released.

Experts are also considering whether the surgery should be offered to adult heterosexual men whose sexual practices put them at high risk of infection. But they acknowledge that a circumcision drive in the United States would be unlikely to have a drastic impact: the procedure does not seem to protect those at greatest risk here, men who have sex with men.

Recently, studies showed that in African countries hit hard by AIDS, men who were circumcised reduced their infection risk by half. But the clinical trials in Africa focused on heterosexual men who are at risk of getting H.I.V. from infected female partners.

For now, the focus of public health officials in this country appears to be on making recommendations for newborns, a prevention strategy that would only pay off many years from now. Critics say it subjects baby boys to medically unnecessary surgery without their consent.

But Dr. Peter Kilmarx, chief of epidemiology for the division of H.I.V./AIDS prevention at the C.D.C., said that any step that could thwart the spread of H.I.V. must be given serious consideration.

“We have a significant H.I.V. epidemic in this country, and we really need to look carefully at any potential intervention that could be another tool in the toolbox we use to address the epidemic,” Dr. Kilmarx said. “What we’ve heard from our consultants is that there would be a benefit for infants from infant circumcision, and that the benefits outweigh the risks.”

He and other experts acknowledged that although the clinical trials of circumcision in Africa had dramatic results, the effects of circumcision in the United States were likely to be more muted because the disease is less prevalent here, because it spreads through different routes and because the health systems are so disparate as to be incomparable.

Clinical trials in Kenya, South Africa and Uganda found that heterosexual men who were circumcised were up to 60 percent less likely to become infected with H.I.V. over the course of the trials than those who were not circumcised.

There is little to no evidence that circumcision protects men who have sex with men from infection.

Another reason circumcision would have less of an impact in the United States is that some 79 percent of adult American men are already circumcised, public health officials say.

But newborn circumcision rates have dropped in recent decades, to about 65 percent of newborns in 1999 from a high of about 80 percent after World War II, according to C.D.C. figures. And blacks and Hispanics, who have been affected disproportionately by AIDS, are less likely than whites to circumcise their baby boys, according to the agency.

…While the clinical trials in Africa found that circumcision reduced the risk of a man’s acquiring H.I.V., it was not clear whether it would reduce the risk to women from an infected man, several experts said./span>

“There’s mixed data on that,” Dr. Kilmarx said. But, he said, “If we have a partially successful intervention for men, it will ultimately lower the prevalence of H.I.V. in the population, and ultimately lower the risk to women.”

[Excerpted from The New York Times, August 24, 2009]

IN OTHER WORDS…

No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick.

–Facebook Meme, Origin Unknown

Transdiaspora Network^TM is a New York-based human capacity building non-profit organization conducting HIV prevention awareness and community-based, culturally aware preventive mentoring for a population of youth at high risk. In addition, it facilitates identification of community resources, empowerment based interventions, and educational approaches to increase health literacy. Our Afro-Caribbean Dance Mediation, Storytelling Dynamics and The Carib Youth Society provide solutions that increase self-awareness and assertiveness. For more information about our organization, please visit www.transdiasporanetwork.org.

©Transdiaspora Network, September 2009

September 17, 2009 No Comments

Issue X – July 2009

Introduction
Announcements
Opinion – Tour de Force for a Better Healthcare System, by Ariel Rojas
In the News
In Other Words

While the summer weather has gotten off to a bit of a cool, slow start, Transdiaspora Network is hot, hot, hot! We are proudly expanding our reach, and the community is beginning to take notice. Hop on over to our community blog to check out a new post by Joshua Cohen about HIV prevention efforts in other parts of the globe. Keep reading to learn more about our latest grant awards and other accolades. We are excited to announce that our second annual End of Summer Caribbean Dance Party will be on August 27 at Boucarou Lounge. Stay tuned for details!

Everyone at TDN extends their heartfelt congratulations to Carib Youth Society members Brandon, Shanhai, Gena, Christal, and Liza who graduated from Paul Robeson High School on June 25. Shanhai had the honor of sharing some inspiring words with her graduating class. “Everyone always says enjoy your high school years, as they will be the best years of your life. I am not sure this is true, but one thing I have learned over the past four years is that we determine our own future. If you choose to, you can make every year your best. And this is one thing our graduation from high school will certainly offer us: the opportunity to make more choices.” As though echoing Shanhai’s sentiments, Brandon is well on his way to fulfilling his dream of becoming an actor, thanks to his recent admission to the prestigious New York Film Academy. We wish them the best of luck and look forward to hearing about their future endeavors. See the photos here.

Our work doesn’t slow down, even in recession. While we’re all trying to figure out how to do more with less, TDN would be grateful for your tax-deductible support to help us fund our fall youth programming. Click here to donate.

Susan Wile Schwarz, MPH
Communications & Research Director

OPINION: Tour de Force for a Better Healthcare System

Rojas Honored at YouthBridge Banquet

On Monday, June 15, Transdiaspora Network’s Founder and President Ariel Rojas spoke at the YouthBridge-NY End-of-Year Banquet at the CUNY Graduation Center. On behalf of TDN, recipient of last year’s Shared Resources for a Shared Future grant, Rojas thanked YouthBridge for the many accomplishments the grant helped TDN to achieve, including the Carib Youth Society trip to Vassar and production of an educational video to engage their peers in the program. Rojas explained, “the grant was instrumental in helping us build out the uniqueness of our programs, which represent a fundamental shift in youth empowerment and HIV prevention.” But according to Rojas, the true value of the grant is not just the money. “It is about staying ahead of future challenges and obstacles and learning by doing.”

Call to Action: HIV is Not in Recession
While President Obama’s 2010 budget showed a real, positive change from the previous administration, there are critical areas regarding AIDS policy where the budget did not go far enough. Advocates for Youth joined with organizational partners to ask Congress to improve the federal HIV/AIDS budget in three additional ways: remove the ban on syringe exchange funding, provide full funding for AIDS housing programs, and pay its fair share to fight global AIDS. For more information on each of the issues, click here.

Because budget decisions are being made now, call Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) today and tell them HIV is not in recession. Click here for detailed call-in instructions.

TDN Awarded Leading by Giving Grant
Transdiaspora Network has been named the recipient of the 2009 We Are All Brooklyn Fellowship’s Leading by Giving Grant. The grant was presented in a formal ceremony at the Brooklyn College Conference Center on July 16.

In selecting TDN as grant recipient, the committee cited our tremendous impact on youth in Brooklyn. The grant committee expressed their belief that TDN has accomplished a tremendous amount and are thrilled to join us in our efforts to strengthen Brooklyn. To see the pictures, click here.

CYS Members Mix It Up at Summer Youth Party

On June 26, members of our Carib Youth Society attended a “School’s Out Summer Party” sponsored by the HEAT Program and the Young Women of Color HIV/AIDS Coalition (YWCHAC). The event was open and free of charge for all NYC youth ages 13-24. The party, which took place at The Lab in Brooklyn, featured music, DJs, food, safer sex educational resources, giveaways, free and confidential HIV rapid testing, and a spontaneous tribute to Michael Jackson’s musical legacy.

KFF Initiative to Mobilize African Americans Against HIV/AIDS
On June 27, the Kaiser Family Foundation launched a national effort to mobilize African Americans to prevent and reduce the further spread of HIV/AIDS. Organized by the Black AIDS Media Partnership, a coalition of leading media companies, in collaboration with the CDC’s Act Against AIDS campaign, the Greater Than AIDS initiative broadcasts public service ads to help strengthen a sense of community response by African Americans to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Launched to coincide with National HIV Testing Day, the initiative focuses on six actions: being informed, using condoms, speaking openly, acting with respect, getting involved, and seeking testing and treatment. The first wave of Greater Than AIDS content will include radio, outdoor, print, and online messages. Television content is scheduled for release in the fall.

According to KFF, AIDS has disproportionately affected African Americans, who today account for nearly half of new HIV infections in the United States despite being only 12% of the population.

“The central idea behind the campaign is to remind us as Black Americans that we are greater than any challenge we have ever faced, and that we are Greater Than AIDS as well,” said Black AIDS Institute founder and CEO Phill Wilson. “It is about a shared responsibility in the face of AIDS — and hope for the possibility of an HIV-free future.”

HIV-Positive Woman Jailed Then Freed Because of Pregnancy
An HIV-positive pregnant woman has been embroiled in a legal battle in an effort to stay out of prison in Maine. The 28 year old, who is originally from Cameroon, was sentenced to 238 days in prison by a judge trying to protect her unborn child from being born with HIV. In a confusing turn of events, a coalition of mobilized AIDS activists, including the National Advocates for Pregnant Women and the Center for HIV Law and Policy, secured the young woman’s release on the very same grounds as her original imprisonment: to protect the unborn child. An amicus brief filed prior to a bail hearing on June 15 outlined the hurdles to meeting necessary care for HIV-positive pregnant women in even the best of prison health care systems. Because of concerns around the continuity and quality of health care, the presiding judge released the woman on bail. At the time of her release, the young woman had been imprisoned for nearly six months.

Crown Heights Leadership Training Institute Graduates New Crop of Leaders
By Mollie Spevack, Crown Heights Community Mediation Center’s Special Project Coordinator

On Tuesday, June 30, 19 community members graduated the Leadership Training Institute of the Crown Heights
Community Mediation Center. The event was attended by over 60 community leaders, friends, and family members. The graduates were recognized with citations, and certificates.

Graduates represented a diverse subsection of the community, varying in age, race, and religion. According to new graduate Janelle Welch, “[the Institute] honed our skills in networking, coalition building, grant writing, media strategies and event planning to name a few…even more importantly we learned how to work together despite our racial, religious, and social backgrounds to help a community in need.”

Throughout the Institute, members participated in community projects, including attending Shabbat dinners at the Wasser household, keeping their oral history alive through help of Transdiaspora Network, community partner of StoryCorps, and learning about diversity with the Anti-Defamation League.

Another graduate, Ari Kievman, described “the remarkable way” that the program “fostered cohesion in the group, cohesion both in formulating the end-goal and the process of attaining it. [He] saw how [graduates'] very differences can be used to the advantage of having more perspectives and out-of-the-box thinking.”

Volunteers Needed for Gender Identity Study
The New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University is recruiting research volunteers to participate in an MRI-based study on the origins of gender identity and the brain. Volunteers ages 6-20 years who show variation in gender identity, who have been diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder, and people with typical gender identity are invited to participate.

Children age 11 and younger who participate will receive a gift certificate to Toys ‘R’ US, and children age 12 and older will receive a check, worth $120, as a thank-you for participating in the MRI study.

Call (212) 543-6072 or (212) 543-5299 or email mristudy@childpsych.columbia.edu for more information.

Sunday Retreat at the River
On July 12, Ariel Rojas, new Youth Affairs Coordinator/Community Liaison Carlton Gomez, and CYS member Niambi went down to Red Hook’s Louis Valentino Jr. Pier to enjoy Brooklyn’s natural environment by kayaking along the river and to connect with one of the most quintessential elements of the Caribbean: the sea. Following her first kayaking experience ever, Niambi expressed her amazement that “Brooklyn even had that kind of stuff.” The team also walked around this eclectic neighborhood to discover the very local taste of Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pies, industrial warehouses, and the community of artists living in the area. Click here for the photos.

By Ariel Rojas, TDN Founder and President

Health policy reform is making headlines these days while President Obama pushes for new healthcare legislation that moves away from terms like “rationing” and “managed care.” The president proposed instead that the best way to drive down healthcare costs is to persuade doctors and hospitals to emphasize quality of care over the quantity of procedures. However, it will be difficult for him to start from scratch and put away the foundations of the system, which conceptualize health from a “revenue and profit” framework rather than as a social investment.

One could ask why the American public is battling still to afford the kind of healthcare system other developed nations put in place long ago.

According to Daniel M. Fox, who served in two state governments, U.S. health policy has been influenced not only by the politics of economic productivity, social justice, and demographic change, it has been guided also by perceptions of how to control disease and the development of medical interventions to mitigate diseases’ effects. In Fox’s view, policymakers have stopped analyzing organizational and financial arrangements in epidemiological terms due to the increase in life expectancy. The major task now is managing the long-term disabling consequences of chronic disease.

According to Fox, by the 1920s, health policy priorities had shifted to maintaining the supply of services to treat and prevent disease and subsidizing the demand for these services. Optimism about medical science spurred leaders of government, business, and philanthropy to allocate funds to increase the supply of medical services. The education of physicians and surgeons became more extensive and expensive.

By the 1960s, hospitals and specialized services had absorbed much of the health budget’s money because the spending priorities were focused on the prestige of medical specialists and professional compensation. By the 1990s, the unrelenting growth of healthcare costs persuaded policymakers to begin taking the political risks required to challenge special interest groups. According to Fox, much of the inflation in health budgets was a result of the perpetuation of hierarchical organization for acute care.

The weakness of Fox’s argument lays in his belief that the American healthcare reform is driven only by collective buyers (private employers and government) who force physicians and hospitals to discount their prices and who demand greater accountability from them.

Uwe E. Reinhardt, Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University, argues that there is no reason for the U.S. to devote a huge percentage of its GDP on health spending because the country is considered to be among the youngest nations in the industrialized world, along with Australia and Canada. In spite of such spending, a substantially higher proportion of Americans express extreme dissatisfaction with their health system than do those in other nations.

Reinhardt questions how other countries (i.e. France, Germany) with much older populations manage to spend so much less on healthcare than the U.S. For him, the problem lies in the lack of interest in exploring healthcare system innovations that may be imported from other nations. He believes that our healthcare system remains so expensive and resistant to change from the bottom up because executives do not have to compete with lower-cost foreign rivals in the healthcare market. In addition, sound health policymaking is hampered because of the power of special interest groups.

He asserts that even though we have applied an “evidence-based approach to clinical practice and research, healthcare reform won’t be possible without comparable research on evidence-based administrative practice – a big challenge in economic terms that has not been taken seriously by Congress.

Reinhardt suggests a turning-point solution: encouraging policymakers to induce healthcare providers from high-cost areas to adopt more modest and effective practices modeled after best practices in lower-cost regions. He makes an excellent observation by putting the allocation of real resources at the center of the actual debate, so we should focus on the transfers that are actually needed to render adequate care to the elderly. Reinhardt criticizes the fee-for-services system because it prevents the population from being able to access better quality services. As he says, it seems odd that the medical system uses the taxes paid by some members of the working population to increase payments to other members of the working population (i.e. doctors).

Most of the healthcare spending is actually quite valuable (i.e. Medicare); however, its shortcomings are due to substantial misallocation of resources. Many services that are provided are not worth their cost, and many services that are valuable are not provided.

Some experts, like David A. Cutler, see three classes of reform proposals: financial reform, control cost reform and choice-based insurance reform. At the end, none of them is as effective as they should be. In Cutler’s view, in the world of healthcare where problems of making second-best choices are endemic, this is no surprise. Nevertheless, the healthcare puzzle is particularly challenging because of multiple, conflicting goals. The ability of America’s political leaders to balance divergent interests will have a major impact on the American healthcare system for decades to come.

Economic Crisis Hurts HIV Fight: World Bank, UN

The economic crisis has disrupted HIV prevention and treatment programmes, including causing shortages of anti-retroviral drugs, a report by UNAIDS and the World Bank said Monday.

“In 22 countries in Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and Central Asia, and Asia and Pacific, disruption of HIV prevention and treatment programmes is expected over the course of this year as a result of the global economic crisis,” said the report.

Eight countries were already facing shortages of anti-retroviral drugs or other disruptions, added the report, which compiled responses from 71 countries where 3.4 million people receive treatment. It added that in 34 countries, respondents said there is already an impact on prevention programmes. Besides concern over external funding for treatment programmes, job losses and falling incomes are making health care more difficult to afford.

“This is a wake-up call which shows that many of our gains in HIV prevention and treatment could unravel because of the impact of the economic crisis,” said Michel Sidibe, executive director of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

“Any interruption or slowing down in funding would be a disaster for the four million people on treatment and the millions more currently being reached by HIV prevention programmes.”

IN OTHER WORDS…

“Health is not a luxury, nor should it be the sole possession of a privileged few. We are all created b’tzelem elohim — in the image of God — and this makes each human life as precious as the next. By ‘pricing out’ a portion of this country’s population from health care coverage, we mock the image of God and destroy the vessels of God’s work.”

– Rabbi Alexander Schindler, Past President, Union of American Hebrew Congregations

Transdiaspora Network^TM is a New York-based human capacity building non-profit organization conducting HIV prevention awareness and community-based, culturally aware preventive mentoring for a population of youth at high risk. In addition, it facilitates identification of community resources, empowerment based interventions, and educational approaches to increase health literacy. Our Afro-Caribbean Dance Mediation, Storytelling Dynamics and The Carib Youth Society provide solutions that increase self-awareness and assertiveness. For more information about our organization, please visit www.transdiasporanetwork.org.

©Transdiaspora Network, July 2009

July 15, 2009 No Comments

Issue IX – May 2009

Introduction
Announcements
Opinion – Enlightening HIV Prevention, by Ariel Rojas
In the News
In Other Words

As we prepare to enter the summer months – and summer vacation, for some – Transdiaspora Network will take a moment to step back and reflect on our accomplishments of the last year. We are proud to announce that TDN was selected as a semi-finalist in the Global Social Venture Competition, a collaborative competition organized by Columbia Business School, The Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, London Business School, and the Indian School of Business. Our community blog continues to be a place to explore and discuss AIDS prevention efforts in other parts of the globe. This month, treasurer Sophie Cardona brings us an on-the-ground report from Paris, France. Check it out here.

The close of the school year marks the end of TDN’s first year of programming with our Carib Youth Society young leaders. We are pleased that many of them will be joining us again in the fall, along with a new “class” of CYS participants. To those who are graduating and moving on to bigger endeavors, we wish them luck. This summer, we also bid farewell to our Youth Affairs Coordinator, Sarah Camiscoli. We wish her good luck in her continued studies at Columbia University.

And just a friendly reminder…thanks to our recently granted 501(c)(3) status, charitable donations to fund our programs are tax deductible. You can make a donation here.

Susan Wile Schwarz, MPH
Communications & Research Director

OPINION: Enlightening HIV Prevention

Carib Youth Society on Campus

At the end of April, Carib Youth Society participants took a day trip up to Vassar College in upstate New York as part of a unique outing organized in collaboration with Paul Robeson High School, Bailey’s Café, and the Vassar College Office of Admissions. For many of our CYS youth leaders, the trip upstate was their first experience beyond the borders of New York City and onto a college campus. The trip offered CYS participants the chance to gain a new perspective outside of and beyond their immediate surroundings and experience, a chance to think bigger.

“It was a good experience. I learned so much being there for only one day,” said CYS’s Christopher Robertson. “I enjoyed interacting with the people there and having conversations with them. It really motivated me to think about higher learning.”

Click here to see more pictures from the Vassar trip.

TDN Team Takes on AIDS Walk New York.
By Sarah Camiscoli

On May 17, TDN’s Carib Youth Society celebrated a year of spreading HIV education through self-awareness, community engagement, and multiculturalism with the New York City AIDS Walk. Both familiar faces and new members of the Society teamed up to raise money and build a team of ten devoted members to walk in the fight against AIDS. While TDN board members, volunteers, and new student members came to know one another from start to finish, they contributed to the $5,603,409 raised this year in the search for a cure.

Among over 45,000 other volunteers, Carib Youth Society members were able to find their own sense of community and purpose within the confines of the group. Marching through Central Park, upperclassman representative Brandon Daley and new members Niambi, Salisha, and Krystal snapped photographs, interacted with other volunteers, and created new relationships with TDN President Ariel Rojas, Treasurer Sophie Cardona, Youth Affairs Coordinator Sarah Camiscoli, and other friends of TDN. While New York City celebrated a sea of inspired volunteers and displayed impressive fundraising during tough times, TDN’s Carib Youth Society celebrated a unique sense of accomplishment, new relationships, and a year of big dreams and humble beginnings.

Click here to see more pictures from AIDS Walk New York.

Obama Cuts Abstinence-Only Funding

President Barack Obama’s 2010 budget eliminates most federal funding for abstinence-only sex-education programs to be replaced with a pair of new teen-pregnancy-prevention programs that could include discussions of birth control.

In total, the Obama budget proposes $164 million for teen-pregnancy prevention. Of that, only about a quarter would be available to fund abstinence-only programs, which would have to compete for funding with other initiatives. The remainder of the money is earmarked for programs with records of success backed by empirical evidence.

Second Annual Benefit Concert Unites Community Around HIV Prevention. By Lina Cherfas

On April 25, Transdiaspora Network held its Second Annual Caribbean Benefit Concert at El Taller Latinoamericano in the Upper West Side. The concert attracted a full house of TDN supporters, friends, and music lovers including Ms. Nira Johnson, NYC Department of Health’s Community Projects Specialist from the Hepatitis Viral Coordination Office; Prof. Teresa Delgado, Peace and Justice Studies Program Director from Iona College; Cuban musician Mongo Santamaria’s daugther Ileana and Billboard Latin Music nominated Marta Gomez. The event began with a few remarks by TDN’s Board Chairman, Ameet Kabrawala, Board Member Ana Tinsly, and Founder/President Ariel Rojas. The emcee for the event was Brandon Daley, a youth participant in TDN’s first program cycle at Paul Robeson High School. Brandon spoke passionately about his and other students’ positive experiences in the program.

Next, it was the musicians’ turn to entertain the audience with Caribbean sounds. The main act was a collaboration between Pavel Urkiza, of Gema Y Pavel, and the Caribbean Subway. The band, which includes TDN Board Member Yosvany Terry and former Yerba Buena member Mauricio Herrera, played a range of beautiful melodies. They also invited two guest performers, acclaimed Billboard star Marta Gomez and special guest Sofia Tosello. The singers added to the eclectic set of Cuban trovas and boleros, the Afro-Cuban rhythms of the Yoruba, and modern rock music.

Following the performances, Brandon Daley led the raffle drawings, during which several lucky audience members received prizes, including CDs from Pavel Urquiza and Marta Gomez and gift certificates for dinner at two New York City restaurants. After the evening ended at El Taller, all were invited to the afterparty at nearby Havana Central at the West End. All who came are already looking forward to next year’s show. To buy Gema Y Pavel CD “Desnudo,” you can visit our website.

Click here to see more pictures from the Benefit.

Fewer Americans Worried About HIV

A new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation reveals that Americans are growing complacent about HIV, even in the face of rising infection rates, and that stigma persists.

Last August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that there are 40% more new infections in the country each year than previously believed. Yet the new survey shows that only 6% of Americans consider HIV/AIDS to be the country’s top health problem, compared to 44% in 1995.

Flagging public concern about HIV may be due to the increasing concentration of new infections among socially and economically marginalized groups.

TDN Partners with Community Mediation Center to Train Leaders

Transdiaspora Network has partnered with the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center on their Leadership Training Institute. The Institute offers workshops and sessions on issues such as fundraising, coalition building, networking, and community organizing for community members. Participants put their leadership skills to use planning community-wide events, starting with the 15th Annual Family Day Picnic.

Through a collaboration with StoryCorps, participants will have a chance to record stories about their lives, involvement in Crown Heights, and desire to make change and better the neighborhood. Recording their stories will provide participants with an empowering opportunity to preserve their legacy and spread their stories to a wider audience.

TDN and CYS Attend Women’s Health Summit

On March 21, Transdiaspora Network and Carib Youth Society participants joined more than a hundred others attending the Young Women of Color’s Community Health Summit at St. Francis College. The summit, which brought together young women from all over Brooklyn to be proactive about HIV, provided a valuable opportunity to interact with other likeminded community based organizations as well as a chance to gauge and appreciate the uniqueness and value of our own work.

Click here to see more pictures from the Health Summit.

TDN’s Rojas Speaks on Social Work Panel

Transdiaspora Network’s Founder and President Ariel Rojas was invited to sit on a discussion panel at the Social Entre-preneurship Forum at Columbia University’s School of Social Work. The Forum, which took place April 22, was geared towards exposing Columbia students to innovative ideas and interventions in the social services field. As a panelist, Ariel spoke about motivating students to think about new ways to serve the community.

Weakened Safety Net System

According to a report by the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies‘ recent welfare restructuring has led to weakened safety for those most in need. The report, “The State of New York’s Social Safety Net for Today’s Hard Times,” is one of the first reports in New York State that examines the implementation and impact of welfare restructuring over the past decade. Most significantly, the report identified an increase in barriers limiting access to assistance. Further, it found that the decline in the welfare caseload stems from an increase in the rate and both denials and withdrawals statewide.

Obama Taps Goosby to Lead Global AIDS Effort

Dr. Eric Goosby, a pioneer in the fight against AIDS, has been named by President Obama to head up the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief as the US government’s global AIDS coordinator and ambassador at large. Dr. Goosby will be at the center of efforts to extend prevention efforts beyond the previous administration’s exclusive focus on abstinence and fidelity.

Dr. Goosby, 56, a medical professor at the University of California, San Francisco, has a long career in public health that includes senior posts in the Clinton administration.

Home Testing for HIV in Kenya

Kenyan couples will soon be able to test themselves for HIV and AIDS in the comfort of their homes as part of a new initiative to prevent the spread of infections. Recent studies show that couples comprise the majority of new cases.

The home-based care package also includes testing of children above 15 years, free TB screening, deworming of children under five years, and distribution of bed nets. National Aids Control Council head of communications Paul Mutie said the home-based package would enable them to meet the target of having 80% of Kenyans know their HIV status by 2010.

By Ariel Rojas, Transdiaspora Network’s Founder & President

How many times have we heard from our parents, teachers, doctors, counselors, or even friends: “I’m telling you not to do it because I know what’s right for you”? This statement ignores the complexity of life. It assumes that young people get direction, a sense of limits, and a clear understanding of traditional norms by narrowing their choices. It is tempting to believe this, especially with something as worrisome as HIV. However, reality (not the reality shows) has always proved us wrong when we make the work of prevention a parade of prohibitions, an axis of the NO, and an extension of clouds over the youngest generation.

Impressionism provides an excellent example of how we can access obscure realities, not necessarily from the dark side of shadows or from the conservative lines of the academic arts. Impressionists were certainly obsessed with light. By attempting a new way of painting light and its effects, they created a new visual experience – one that palpitates with movement, light, and life. Yet at the same time, they did not deny the existence of shadows. The experience of “black” was achieved through contrasts and complex compositions of purples and blues. Even in darkness, there is color.

Abstinence and the promotion of condoms, the two pillars of HIV prevention, do not necessarily mean positive engagement. We are fighting a lethal virus by relying only on the power of NO. We are promoting health and personal responsibility from external factors that do not enable individuals to operationalize more substantive solutions connected to social development.

Is there any obscure pleasure in showing control and discipline by just saying NO? Why does prevention come into play as a reactive maneuver post facto and not as an anticipatory process –a real pre-event strategy?

One could say that the power of NO lies in its reputation for getting straightforward results. Nevertheless, young people find intriguing ways to learn about life by walking away from the power of NO most of the time. And walking away, looking for magic and lessons affirming themselves, they often find an unbearable loneliness that carries too many black holes and unspeakable bitterness. Walking away from the NO, they walk away from prevention as well if our work is based solely on prohibitive behaviors. This could be a hazard when promoting self-awareness and social engagement. We may find our programs cracking easily after a short walk into reality.

HIV prevention advocates have a compulsory sense of urgency when asking local residents for support to change certain legislations. They want to change policymakers’ attitudes with phone calls and open letters, but they act slowly in making the structure of local communities more efficient as educational spaces where young people can find a territory of leadership. Lobbying the legislatively powerful is certainly needed, but HIV prevention advocates should also keep in mind the main reason for their social activism: education. They should pave roads into campuses of higher education, community-level venues of information and empowerment that already exist.

Moreover, community-based organizations should strategically allocate young leaders as liaisons to heighten awareness of the need to articulate a more extensive educational approach to HIV prevention. I have seen community health workers and care providers relying on solutions based on a culture of fear, sending young people down dead-end streets without embracing a transformative dialogue. We continue to spend time, resources, and money in such short-sighted strategies while the infection rate keeps rising year after year. Up to this point, one could ask: are we really engaging the youngest generations from the power of NO?

It will not matter how many condoms are supplied by the government and community clinics, nor how many abstinence-only programs we fund, or how many legislations we pass at the city, state, or federal level if we fail to pursue an HIV prevention strategy based on educational transformation – the key to long-term solutions that palpitate with life and light, solutions that can keep our young people healthy. Most importantly, HIV prevention is not about lecturing but giving ammunition to break the cycle of stigma and social disadvantage in our communities. As a result, young people will be educating others from a position of self-worth and possibilities, instead of admonitions and fears.

Sexual Prowess or Sexual Violence?

“For years, Caribbean music has reflected men’s apparent belief that sexual prowess and – by their extension, masculinity – was defined by a violent approach to heterosexual sex. This has in some instances been encouraged by women DJs who competed with their male counterparts not on the basis of musical talent, of “killing a sound” as the men have done, but by highlighting their own sexual freedom and bravado: their capacity to – in sexual and other implied terms – take whatever the men could dish out. So that while we’ve had songs like “Cabin Stabbin’” from Super Cat et al, we’ve also had “Stab Up Mi Meat” from Lady Saw. Now arguably, the thrusting act that might be a part of sexual intercourse could be described as stabbing, if one were given to violent metaphors, which – given the prevalence of actual, criminal, sexual violence perpetrated both within and outside of relationships – I for one am not. But it seems like we’re consumed with encouraging as much violence in sex as possible. “Stabbing” has become too tame; now we have to call it “daggering.”

And let’s be honest: the whole stabbing/daggering sex simulation as a part of nightclub dancing* is nothing new. Caribbean dancing to calypso and reggae, while very creative, is very sexual in nature. Growing up, there was always the idiot in the club who – unsummoned – would decide to suddenly ram his pelvis against you, because somehow you blinked and this became acceptable behaviour in which two strangers might engage. It was odious, unacceptable, and what I would characterise as assault. At that time, though, and among my friends and most people present, he was shoved off, glared at by men and women alike, and in many cases removed by security. But there were too many times when in other instances, I witnessed other women being similarly treated, and their reaction was just to grimace and wait for it to be over, lest they be accused of being prudish or “soft.” Now, though, it seems this kind of “dancing” is being glorified more and more, causing officials in Jamaica enough concern to ban music in which it is featured.

NYC: Why are people of color at high risk for HIV infection?

Of course, two adults can decide jointly whether they want to engage in sexual behaviour that might break parts of their person. But I wonder how many women out there are grinning and bearing it just like those women in the clubs did those years ago, and still do.

[Excerpted from The Mongoose Chronicles, April, 2009]

IN OTHER WORDS…“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

– Margaret Mead

Transdiaspora Network^TM is a New York-based human capacity building non-profit organization conducting HIV prevention awareness and community-based, culturally aware preventive mentoring for a population of youth at high risk. In addition, it facilitates identification of community resources, empowerment based interventions, and educational approaches to increase health literacy. Our Afro-Caribbean Dance Mediation, Storytelling Dynamics and The Carib Youth Society provide solutions that increase self-awareness and assertiveness. For more information about our organization, please visit www.transdiasporanetwork.org.

May 26, 2009 No Comments

Issue VIII – March 2009

Introduction
Announcements
Opinion – Dance: Movement, Emotion, Reflection, by Alina Wong
In the News
In Other Words

It may not feel like it, but spring really is just around the corner. And with the changing seasons comes exciting new growth at Transdiaspora Network. Thanks to friends like you, not only has our new promotional video been viewed nearly 400 times online, but the Guttmacher Institute will host a private screening for the entire CHAMP Network’s New York staff later this month. And as we continue to grow in impact and reach, we need as much nurturing and support as we can get. TDN is now able to accept tax exempt monetary donations from our website with just the click of a button. To make this process easier for our friends, donations will be managed through Paypal.

Susan Wile Schwarz, MPH
Communications & Research Director

OPINION: Dance…Movement, Emotion, Reflection

TDN to Throw 2nd Annual Caribbean Benefit Concert

After a year of many successes, Transdiaspora Network is hosting its second Caribbean benefit concert on April 25th, from 8:00pm to 10:30pm at El Taller Latinoamericano.

For the occasion, Cuban singer-songwriter Pavel Urkiza, from Gema & Pavel duo, recognized as “an exception to the current musical creative drought” on the world music scene, will be playing with the Caribbean Subway. This project rediscovers old traditions and instruments from the Caribbean creating a sonorous color World Music style. For directions to the venue and to buy tickets for the concert, click here.

Carib Youth Society Reps Interviewed on Diaspora Radio

On February 20th, two members of our Carib Youth Society, Keyonna Jones, 14 years old, and Brandon Daley, 18 years old, were invited into the studio at the New American Chamber of Commerce’s Diaspora Radio. Keyonna and Brandon took the opportunity to express their views on HIV prevention and how Transdiaspora Network’s Train-the-Trainer program helped them improve their understanding of HIV and develop effective coping skills for crisis situations.They also spoke about learning to understand their bodies from a different perspective thanks to their involvement with TDN.

“We’re learning about HIV/AIDS prevention without even knowing that we are learning, which is something very special to me,” said Brandon. He added that TDN helps him to tell his story and open up in group settings. Keyonna explained that the program provides an opportunity to build trust among peers and discuss key issues in their community. Beyond HIV prevention awareness, TDN enabled her to interact with her inner self, she added. Youth Affairs Coordinator Sarah Camiscoli, who was also present during the interview, expressed optimism about moving forward the Carib Youth Society’s ambitious agenda. You will be able listen to the entire interview on our website within the next few weeks. To see more pictures from the interview, click here.

Young Women of Color Health Summit

The Health and Education Alternatives for Teens (HEAT) Program’s Young Women of Color HIV/AIDS Coalition is hosting a health summit for young women ages 13-24 on Saturday, March 21st. The summit, entitled “Own Our Power! Saving Our Selves,” will feature guest speakers, workshops, giveaways, raffles, and free STD and HIV screening from 11:00am to 5:00pm at St. Francis College, 180 Remsen Street in downtown Brooklyn. Pre-register for the summit here.

The HEAT Program provides age- and developmentally appropriate, culturally competent care for heterosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexuals, and transgender youth who are living with or at very high risk for HIV/AIDS at the Center for Healthcare Services in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The HEAT Program operates a “one-stop” full-service clinic, offering a full range of medical, mental health, and supportive services that are tailored to meet the special healthcare needs of young people.

Obama Names National AIDS Policy Chief

On February 26th, President Barack Obama announced his appointment of Jeffrey S. Crowley to head the Office of National AIDS Policy, the White House Office tasked with coordinating government efforts to reduce the number of HIV infections across the United States and coordinating care for those already infected. Mr. Crowley’s appointment is President Obama’s major first step in fulfilling his campaign promise to craft a national AIDS strategy.

“Knowing Mr. Crowley’s record of improving access to health and social services for people living with HIV/AIDS, people with physical and mental disabilities, low-income individuals, and other vulnerable populations, we look forward to working with him to ensure the inclusion of Hispanic/Latino AIDS Action Agenda priorities in a National HIV/AIDS Strategy,” said Dennis de Leon, President of the Latino Commission on AIDS.

Prior to his appointment, Crowley was a senior research scholar at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute. He holds a master’s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University.

Still Time to Join the TDN AIDS Walk NY Team

Time is running out to join the Transdiaspora Network team for this year’s AIDS Walk New York on Sunday, May 17th. To learn more about our involvement or to register as part of our team, please visit our homepage at www.transdiasporanetwork.org and click on “AIDS Walk New York 2009.” After you register, Ariel will let you know about all our team activities, give you registration cards to add friends and relatives to our team, and answer any questions you might have.

Online registration is also available at the AIDS Walk website. Remember to indicate that you are on Transdiaspora Network team. You can download your sponsor form to print out immediately and receive your Walker Kit from the AIDS Walk office. Encourage your family members and friends to register online to walk with our team. The more participants we have, the stronger and more successful our team will be!

TDN to Survey Bed-Stuy Community on Health

Transdiaspora Network volunteers will conduct a community survey in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn to assess knowledge and impact of HIV/AIDS in that neighborhood and to collect basic demographic data. Data will be collected using convenience sampling methods in collaboration with Columbia University Community Outreach. This survey, which will be conducted on March 26, is a follow-up to last spring’s survey in Crown Heights. As with last year, researchers from the Center for the Study of Brooklyn at Brooklyn College will assist with data analysis.

Mass General to Establish AIDS Vaccine Institute

Massachusetts General Hospital has announced a ten-year, $100 million gift from technology entrepreneur Phillip Terrence Ragon and his wife, Susan, to create an institute to accelerate research on an AIDS vaccine in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Funded by the Phillip T. and Susan M. Ragon Institute Foundation, the Ragon Institute will bring together scientists, clinicians, and engineers using the latest technologies initially to identify the effective immune responses in a small but extraordinary group of HIV-infected persons who are able to keep the virus in check without medications and to design strategies that can induce those responses. Based at MGH, the institute will work to better understand how the body fights infection and ultimately apply that understanding to fight a wide range of diseases and cancers.

Live from Lima on TDN Blog

Head on over to the Transdiaspora Network blog where you can stay tuned to the latest installment of our exciting feature series, On the Verge: The Local Other, from TDN Board Chairman Ameet Kabrawala as he travels around the world. Ameet checks in regularly with TDN blog readers, providing his on-the-ground insight into the state of the HIV/AIDS battle in each of the areas he visits. This month, Ameet reports from Lima, Peru.

KFF Webcast Discusses US Role in Global Fund

On Tuesday, February 17th, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) held a live, interactive webcast with Michel Kazatchkine, M.D., Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, to discuss the next phase of the U.S. government’s role and involvement in the Global Fund. The conversation addressed questions about the role of the US in funding the Global Fund and the changes a new administration may bring as well as more general discussion about the Fund’s accomplishments and challenges.

This program is the first in a new KFF webcast series entitled “U.S. Global Health Policy: In Focus” devoted to discussing current and critical issues facing the U.S. To watch the webcast, click here.

TDN Calls for Greater Inclusion in AIDS Conference

Transdiaspora Network joined nearly 150 organizations endorsing a letter from the Prevention Justice Alliance to the organizers of the National HIV Prevention Conference (NHPC) asking them to include sessions and discussions from a wide range of federal agencies and departments beyond the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) at the next conference this August.
As a national conference, the NHPC must strive to advance HIV prevention with the full force of the federal government, not just the CDC, with limited participation from HHS. The conference should emphasize cross-governmental collaboration for HIV prevention in the spirit of a comprehensive national AIDS strategy.

The Prevention Justice Alliance is a collaboration between CHAMP, SisterLove, and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago.

Access NYC Computer Terminal at CHCMC

The Crown Heights Community Mediation Center now has an Access NYC computer terminal. Using the terminal, community members can learn if they are eligible for over 35 different city, state, and federal human service benefits programs at one time. New Yorkers can access this information in one of seven languages: English, Spanish, Haitian-Creole, Arabic, Russian, Chinese, or Korean. If you are interested in using this program, please call (718) 773-6886 to make an appointment with a Mediation Center staff member who can help you through the process of beginning an application for a variety of public benefit programs.

TDN Joins Forces with Latino Commission

Transdiaspora Network has been invited to be part of a series of working group meetings at the Latino Commission on AIDS. The meetings bring together a diverse group of HIV/AIDS services and care providers working with different Latino subgroups particularly affected by the epidemic.

CDC Releases Alarming Data on HIV/AIDS Prevalence Among Latinos/Hispanics

Reports released last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) highlighted the extent of the HIV/AIDS epidemic among Latinos/Hispanics and reinforced the need for immediate action. According to the report, Latinos/Hispanics represent 15.3% of the US population but account for 19.0% of people living with AIDS and reported to be 18.0 % of those living with an undiagnosed HIV infection.

The study finds among those living with HIV, African Americans and Latinos were less likely to be diagnosed compared to their White counterparts (22.2% of blacks and 21.6% of Hispanics vs. 18.8% of Whites). CDC data also shows that Latinos progress to AIDS faster than any other racial or ethnic group with 41% being diagnosed with AIDS within 12 months of learning of their positive HIV status compared to 34% among Whites and 35% among Blacks.

Currently, states and territories with large Latino populations such as California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Puerto Rico are excluded from surveillance data, suggesting that the alarmingly high HIV statistics for Latino populations could actually be even higher.

The CDC’s analysis adds to an already substantial body of data showing the tremendous toll that HIV/AIDS takes on African American and Latino communities. As the number of people living with HIV continues to increase, reaching individuals at risk for HIV with culturally competent and linguistically appropriate prevention education, HIV testing, and treatment is critical. Testing is the essential first step in linking people with HIV to medical care and ongoing support to help them establish and maintain safer behaviors.

Some headlines from our website’s news section:

AIDS has become the biggest killer in China. (March 1, 2009)

$400 million For HIV/STI Prevention Included in Economic Recovery Bill. (Feb. 1, 2008)

By Alina Wong

Translated by Sarah Camiscoli

Dancing was one of the first actions taken by our ancestors. But in those times, they did not dance like we do today. Back then it was a battle for survival in which our ancestors were barely starting to know the mysteries of nature. Life was precarious, though, our ancestors danced. Up until today, men and women have not stopped doing so.

The history of humanity calls forth a catalog ample with dances created over the course of many centuries. Throughout its development, there have been many interpretations and types of dances: ritualized dances to bring forth the rain, the crops, and the hunt; dances to celebrate birth, the arrival of puberty, or marriage. History also refers to danse macabre for those who have passed away as well as popular dances for public festivities, stylized dances and dances in other scenes: ballet, folkloric theater dance, modern dance, contemporary dance and also postmodern dances.

Every variant of dance articulates, in its own particular way, movement, emotion, and reflection. It would be an error to think that dance only embodies simple physical movement. Every dance expresses how each diverse social group has valued its prospective resources, materials, and spirituality, expressing how the group members uncovered their own means of confronting the complexity of life. Those who practice dance continually demonstrate the mode in which each individual person can integrate his or her emotions, development, and obstacles through a median of rhythmic movement born from a particular cultural context.

As a result, dance has created a space in which the challenges faced by men and women can manifest. One’s physical and psychological health is also included in the agency of dance. One can understand the incredible effects on human health that can be found through the practice of dance. For example, dance is preventative against obesity, stress, and problems in communication, while fostering personal growth and a natural style of living a healthy life. Whether one decides to participate in a program for dance therapy or ballet for the disabled, this truth can be confirmed. Those who experience dance spontaneously in popular dances at parties or salons can also reaffirm how dance effectively mobilizes both the body and the soul. Dancing, then, is for the health of all!

Alina Wong earned her BA in Psychology and her MS in Communication Sciences at University of Havana where she is a professor of History of Psychology in the the Psychology Department. She coordinates the Psychology of Art studies at the university and collaborates with Escuela Cubana de Ballet, one of Cuba’s world famous cultural institutions. For her research about human development and dance, Prof. Wong recently won a scholarship to complete her Doctorate at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain and has been invited to several international conferences in Spain, Mexico, and Cuba.

Sarah Camiscoli is TDN’s Youth Affairs and Communications Assistant.

HIV in our communities of color – An interview with Suki Terada Ports of the Family Health Project

By Courtney Smith

““Racial and ethnic minorities continue to be disproportionately affected by sexually transmitted diseases in the United States,” concludes a 2007 report by the Centers for Disease Control, the nation’s public health agency. That means people of color get more than their fair share of STDs, including HIV.

I wondered why this should be, so to find out more, I interviewed Suki Terada Ports. She’s the founder and executive director of the Family Health Project (FHP), a New York-based nonprofit organization that works to raise awareness of the impact that HIV/AIDS has on communities of color.

NYC: Why are people of color at high risk for HIV infection?

TERADA PORTS: Part of it is because there is less candid conversation among some people about sex and AIDS. And it doesn’t have to be people of color, but it’s very often people who have a limited education.

One of the issues in AIDS prevention is that the schools aren’t teaching the curriculum that they’re supposed to, and neither the students nor the parents have had a good education in AIDS prevention. A good science or health class should talk about prevention, disease, reproduction and the difference between men and women. If that’s not presented in a school, then your students aren’t going to have the issues of prevention in their minds

New York State has a law that says every school must provide lessons on HIV prevention from kindergarten to 12th grade. A new curriculum has finally been created on HIV, but they haven’t taught all the teachers how to teach the new curriculum. So there are a lot of schools that don’t have it yet and I think that’s an issue: how soon is every school going to obey state law about having HIV education? In the meantime, people are getting sick.

That’s what’s happening in communities of color, the schools aren’t meeting the standards. It’s not that there’s anything in the genes of communities of color. It’s the context of their lives. You don’t see so much AIDS among middle-class people of color.

[Excerpted from New Youth Connections, January 30, 2009]

IN OTHER WORDS…“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

– Margaret Mead

Transdiaspora Network^TM is a New York-based human capacity building non-profit organization conducting HIV prevention awareness and community-based, culturally aware preventive mentoring for a population of youth at high risk. In addition, it facilitates identification of community resources, empowerment based interventions, and educational approaches to increase health literacy. Our Afro-Caribbean Dance Mediation, Storytelling Dynamics and The Carib Youth Society provide solutions that increase self-awareness and assertiveness. For more information about our organization, please visit www.transdiasporanetwork.org.

March 6, 2009 No Comments

Issue VII – January 2009

Introduction
Announcements
Opinion – This is My Body…Given for You, by Teresa Delgado
In the News
In Other Words

Out with the old and in with the new. With the New Year comes a whole host of exciting new developments and important new challenges. For the first time in years, real talk of healthcare reform is in the air. Can you feel it? And as exciting as this change in political direction is, this is no time to sit back and rest on our laurels. On the contrary, this is the moment we’ve been waiting for. This is our moment. Now is our chance to really be heard and make change on every level, from within our own grassroots communities on up to the Oval Office. So get involved. Start agitating. Start acting. And stay tuned. TDN has lots of new developments in the works, including a new team member (see below) and the election of Casey Reckman to the Board of Trustees. Casey brings extensive experience in both the Caribbean and Latin America as well as a Master’s Degree from Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies. Please join me in welcoming her to our Board.

Susan Wile Schwarz, MPH
Communications & Research Director

OPINION: This is My Body…Given for You: Reflections on the Cross, Latinas, and HIV/AIDS

TDN Welcomes New Team Member

In conjunction with the New Year, Transdiaspora Network welcomed Sarah Camiscoli as the new Youth Affairs and Communication Assistant. Sarah is studying Spanish, Anthropology, and Psychology as a first year student at Columbia University. She has already worked with several programs during her first semester to engage herself with the surrounding communities such as Columbia Urban Experience and Harlem Restoration Project. This year, she is looking forward to working with several enthusiastic Brooklyn students to coordinate the Carib Youth Society – a group whose motto “Of the community, With the community” exemplifies its dedication to redefining community service while embracing Caribbean culture. Sarah plans to meet with the students in weekly sessions to coordinate different ways that the students can connect their peers and community with the mission of TDN. Some of the students have already suggested incorporating poetry, photography, music, and dance as a means of engaging their community with the Carib Youth Society and TDN.

TDN’s Teen Participants Record Their Stories
By Sarah Camiscoli

Members of Transdiaspora Network’s Carib Youth Society teamed up on Saturday to kick off the New Year with six enthusiastic students and a successful storytelling session at StoryCorps NYC. StoryCorps, one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, is an independent nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening. In their 40-minute session, which is going to be preserved at the Library of Congress, the students had the opportunity to reflect on their experience working with TDN this past semester and their hopes for the coming year. Although the students of the Carib Youth Society claimed that they were a bit nervous about having their “stories” recorded, they said that they really enjoyed the overall experience and were excited to brainstorm about what they would like to see for the coming year. Some of the students breached the ideas of combining poetry, music, photography, and involving their student government to make Carib Youth Society a success in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. When asked about her hopes for the coming year, Keyonna, a 14-year-old active member of the society responded, “I want to be a leader. I want to do something with my life.” Equipped with such great experiences and many stories from 2008, fresh ideas, new members, and fervor from the society’s members, the Carib Youth Society and TDN have high hopes for the success and memories that will undoubtedly unfold in 2009.

TDN’s Rojas Interviewed for World AIDS Day

Transdiaspora Network founder and president Ariel Rojas was invited by the New American Chamber of Commerce to be a guest on its radio show for the twentieth anniversary of World AIDS Day. This Brooklyn-based Caribbean radio show is devoted to promoting Caribbean entrepreneurs and the legacy of West Indians in New York City. The shows air on TCM 1620AM Community Radio and www.diasporaradio.com.

Join the TDN AIDS Walk NY Team

We need YOU to join the Transdiaspora Network team for this year’s AIDS Walk New York on Sunday, May 17. To learn more about our involvement or to register as part of our team, please visit our website at www.transdiasporanetwork.org and click on “AIDS Walk New York 2009.” After you register, Ariel will let you know about all our team activities, give you registration cards to add friends and relatives to our team, and answer any questions you might have.

TDN Films Promotional Video

On Jan. 10, Transdiaspora Network embarked on a brand new adventure, shooting our first promotional video on a very snowy and freezing afternoon. Despite the chilly weather, the excitement was visible, and nobody missed the opportunity to work for the cameras. TDN’s board and staff members, partners, and Train-the-Trainer program participants showed up for the occasion. The video will be produced by TDN in collaboration with ANIS Producciones, a film production house, and Guajira, a graphic design studio.

TDN Joins Social Networking Revolution

Transdiaspora Network is excited to announce the launch of our MySpace and Facebook presence. Our designated TDN MySpace page will primarily be used to forge connections with teenagers in the Brooklyn community and to introduce them to and engage them in our leadership and education activities, particularly with the Carib Youth Society. By contrast, our Facebook group is bringing together students, professionals, and activists of all stripes to spread the word about TDN developments, achievements, and fundraising events. If you are on MySpace or Facebook, please search for Transdiaspora Network and become a friend or group member.

TDN to Revise Intervention Strategies

Since our last newsletter, Transdiaspora Network has been invited by the Social Intervention Group (SIG) to participate in a training to develop and implement effective interventions for heterosexual couples at risk. True to our unique approach, we plan to tailor and ultimately reinvent these strategies for culturally diverse youth.

SIG is a multidisciplinary research center at the Columbia University School of Social Work that works to develop and test effective prevention and intervention models and disseminate them to local, national, and international communities. SIG’s research addresses the co-occurring problems of HIV, drug abuse, intimate partner violence and trauma.

CHAMP Forum Attendees Call for Greater Inclusion

A CHAMP Network community forum last November took a surprising turn as attendees agitated for change within the HIV/AIDS movement. As part of the planned discussion titled “The Election and the HIV Epidemic: Aiming Higher for HIV Policies on the Local and National Levels,” panelists Bebe J. Anderson from Lambda Legal, Terri Smith-Caronia from Housing Works, Mehret Mandefro from TruthAIDS, and Matthew Lesieur from Village Care of New York and NAPWA outlined many of the challenges we face in keeping HIV/AIDS interests front and center in state and federal budgets and policy. The panelists, moderated by GMHC’s Nathan Schaefer, emphasized the importance of the political moment and urged action to the more than 50 attendees, most of whom were grassroots activists, community organizers, and PLWHA. In the Q&A following the moderated discussion, numerous attendees spoke up, first praising the panelists but ultimately calling for greater efforts to include PLWHA, particularly women and people of color, in leadership roles and future panels and to better engage and mobilize them to advocate more aggressively for their needs.

Nicholas Discusses Dominican Family AIDS Program

On Dec. 1, 2008, Dr. Stephen Nicholas gave a talk at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health outlining his involvement in the groundbreaking Family AIDS Program in the Dominican Republic. Dr. Nicholas, who is the Director of the International Family AIDS Program and Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Clinical Population and Family Health, was instrumental in bringing an integrated community and family-based approach to prevention, healthcare, education, and outreach. An estimated 52,000 to 71,000 children and adults in the Dominican Republic are living with HIV/AIDS today. Over the past decade, the Family AIDS Program in the Dominican Republic has radically increased the disease’s survival rates.

New Film Explores AIDS in Caribbean Culture

Trinidadian/Canadian filmmaker Nadia Buckmire (Damaged Goods – Showtime Networks 2005) just released her new work, “Coming Home…fighting AIDS with Culture in the Caribbean.” The film is a bold and progressive message on issues surrounding HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean. Voices of Hinduism, Rastafarai, Islam, Orisha, Catholicism, and the “carnival culture” share what are sometimes controversial views on abstinence, condoms, relationships and sex. The film has been described as a colorful, musical essay, with a powerful voice. Watch the preview.

Don’t forget to check out our Community Blog’s first installment of “On the Verge: The Local Other,” the beginning of an effort to inform the general public about other HIV prevention initiatives around the globe.

Did you know…since we published the first TDN newsletter last January, this page has been visited more than 1,000 times and from 28 countries, including Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, China, Taiwan, India, Vietnam, Tanzania, South Africa, Bolivia, Colombia, Martinique, Dominican Republic, and Cuba, among others?

By Teresa Delgado, PhD

As a Roman Catholic Caribbean woman from Puerto Rico, I’ve spent my entire life gazing upon the horror of the crucifix, of Jesus’ bloody and broken body strung up on the cross, the mode of execution for a criminal of his day. I use the term “horror” because I see beyond the sculptor’s rendering of a religious icon and imagine what it would have been like to nail a body onto a tree, with flesh ripping from the weight and gravity. I have that gruesome vision as I hear the words of institution, stated and restated at every Sunday Mass, which affirm the meaning and purpose of that tragic death as a freely given offering for our salvation, a sign of the relationality and grace of God: “This is my body which is given for you” (Luke 22:19).

These words took on new meaning when I heard testimony of women and young girls, sometimes as young as ten years of age, my sisters from Latin America and the Caribbean, recount their stories of being trafficked across the borders within Latin America or into the United States. They spoke of the terrors of being taken from their homes, some without knowledge of where they were going, deprived of sleep and food, raped and beaten, often to settle some debt held by their very own family. They spoke of being sold into slavery of the sexual kind, so that their bodies and their sex could be used as a commodity to save their respective families from financial ruin. This is my body which is given for you.

The words took on new meaning yet again when I heard the testimony of young Latinas as well as Caribbean girls in the United States who had contracted HIV from their boyfriends and husbands who had multiple sex partners and refused to use condoms, unable to confront these men for fear of being beaten, abandoned, or both. Their culture had taught them, explicitly and subtly, that good women don’t assert their sexual needs and certainly don’t contradict those of men. Good women are supposed to serve their men, in the kitchen and the bedroom, even at the expense of their own health. This is my body which is given for you.

For many young Latinas, including Caribbean women, in the United States, Catholicism and Caribbean/Latin American/Latino culture have shaped what it means to be human in general and woman in particular. That particular meaning ascribed to “woman” has led to and perpetuated abusive and self-sacrificial characteristics as elements of women’s humanity. For Caribbean, Latin American, and Latina women, the religious and cultural foundations of sexuality and gender have dominated their self-understanding, made worse by the double scourge of an increasing rate of HIV/AIDS infection and human trafficking. I cannot help but ask what it means to be human in the physical bodies which women inhabit, especially when the particularity of “woman bodiliness” entails the religious and cultural mandate to “give up” our bodies for the sake of others: as mothers, objects of sexual exploitation, and as commodities for sale. For those of us who are Roman Catholic, our tradition has not offered much guidance since sex/sexuality is often understood as a means to a greater good, which can serve to perpetuate the abuse of women’s sexual bodies.

The Christian tradition in general and the Roman Catholic Church in particular have a responsibility to address the dual crosses of human trafficking and HIV/AIDS that Caribbean and Latin American women as well as Latinas in the U.S. have been burdened to bear in the 21st century, given that our tradition is founded on a belief that God took on a bodily form through Jesus, to affirm the goodness of humanity, and to live with us and die for us: this is my body which is given for you. The statistics for both human trafficking and HIV/AIDS, as distinct yet intimately related scourges, are staggering. The Central Intelligence Agency of the United States estimates that 50,000 persons are trafficked into the United States annually, 15,000 who are enslaved Latin Americans. By these estimates (2003 CIA report), the majority of these are women and children used for organized sex trafficking, representing a 10 billion dollar industry. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has made explicit the connection between human trafficking and HIV/AIDS transmission by stating,

“Many girls and women are being trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation and it seems highly likely that they are forced into unprotected sexual acts with multiple partners, and this is a significant factor in the spread of HIV. HIV/AIDS has received little attention in efforts to address trafficking in persons, and therefore at the moment specific HIV/ AIDS prevention and care services hardly exist for these people. While many national HIV/AIDS plans include policies and programs addressing sex work, issues such as trafficking in persons, coercion into sex work, rape, and sexual violence are usually not addressed. General responses addressing HIV/AIDS have little impact on trafficked persons due to the clandestine nature of human trafficking, and because people who have been trafficked are not usually reached by services.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV/AIDS is the fourth leading cause of death among Latinas in the United States ages 35-44. High risk heterosexual contact accounts for 80% of transmission for all women and adolescent girls (2005). Latinas constitute 16% of HIV/AIDS cases among women in 33 states. In 1999, The Los Angeles Times reported that, according to Dr. Chuck Henry, Director of the Los Angeles County Office of AIDS Programs and Policy, the rate of infection among Latinos in LA County had risen from 26% (1991) to 43% (1998). Again, these statistics underestimate the number of Latinas actually infected since many go unreported due to illegal immigrant status, lack of access to medical care, and the clandestine nature of sex slavery and human trafficking.

From these alarming statistics, we can conclude that simply being a Caribbean, Latina, or Latin American woman in the 21st century puts her at an incredible risk of having her bodily integrity compromised by the double scourge of human trafficking and HIV/AIDS. One cannot speak about what it means to be a human being in relation to God and others without taking seriously the lived historical context in which our human bodies are situated. And Caribbean/Latin American women’s bodies, as well as those of her sister Latinas in the U.S., are bodies under siege. If we are bold enough to recall those words – “this is my body which is given for you” – then we are affirming a belief that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection in his particular time and place has something to do with our own. In other words, what happens to and with our bodies in this time and place is supposed to matter to our church, at the very least.

Teresa Delgado received her doctorate in systematic theology from Union Theological Seminary in 2005; she also received her MA from the Seminary in 1993. Teresa’s most recent work, entitled, “This is my body…given for you: theological anthropology latina/mente,” will be published by Fortress Press in an upcoming volume of essays in constructive Roman Catholic feminist theology, entitled Shoulder to Shoulder: Constructive Catholic Feminist Theology. She is currently the Director of the Peace and Justice Studies Program and Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Iona College (New Rochelle, NY).