My Soap Box

I know this blog is about my sisterlocks and my progress thereof however, after going to a benefit this past weekend...I felt I needed to post about this:

I went to a benefit for a Pediatric HIV/AIDS home in D.C., the Wright House. This house is a sanitary for children who are infected/affected by this raging epidemic. The children are picked up after school; they are feed, receive counseling, art therapy, tutoring and love among a range of other services. This home represents so much for the children it serves. All of the children are African-American and they range from just 5 years of age to 18. The director explained that though they serve a large volume of children, they could clone themselves 10X and not serve the need in the DC. There are many children who are on the waiting list to get into the Wright House, these are children who are just looking for a place to be at peace, where they can be what they were intended to be...a child.

For years I did clinical laboratory screening/research for Pediatric/Adults HIV and I am still greatly disappointed in the sheer volume of people who continue to be affected/infected by this disease. I am deeply angred by rates of infection as it relates to the Black community. For a disease that is 100% preventable... it is overwhelming to look at the statistics for the District and I am sure many other cities around the country. After this benefit I sat in the car for a very long time...I really can not comprehend how in the Nations Capitol, in one of the greatest Nations on earth this disease continues to rage with virtual impunity:

* The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now estimate that more than one million Americans are living with HIV. Up to one-third of them do not know they are HIV-positive.
* It's estimated that one in every 20 adults in the District of Columbia is infected with HIV.
* D.C. has the highest rate of new AIDS cases per 100,000 population in the United States -- a rate that is 10 times the national average.
* In D.C., the greatest increase in AIDS cases is occurring among people of color, women, injection drug users and through heterosexual contact.
* In D.C., 82 percent of all AIDS cases are among African-Americans.
* More than 15,000 people in the Washington metropolitan area live with AIDS. Tens of thousands more people are estimated to be infected with HIV.
* Nationwide, someone under the age of 25 is infected with HIV every 30 minutes.

As I saw these numbers I concluded that there needs to be a paradigm shift in the Black community. We need to wake up and realize there is a generation that is being decimated right before our eyes. We can not afford to be asleep at the wheel..the consequences are too real.