FOUNDER'S SUMMARY

As many of you know, until 1 year ago, I was working full time in the United States Virgin Islands as the Territorial Nurse Practitioner for HIV/AIDS.  I was involved in outreach, treatment, education and prevention.  HIV is still the 1 killer of people on the continent of Africa which has 27 + million people infected with the virus.  In the United States, HIV continues to rise despite the billions of dollars that are spent funding Community based organizations etc. Black women in America are fifteen times more likely to become infected with the virus than their white counter parts and homosexual males are the 1 most infected people in America living with the virus. Both groups continue to have rising numbers of individuals infected on a yearly basis.  According to Center for Disease Control in 2006 more than 56,000 Americans were infected with the HIV virus, most of whom were bisexual or homosexual males.  Why is this virus continuing to perpetuate itself amongst our communities when there are tremendous amounts of money being poured into treatment and outreach?

Recently, I had the wonderful experience of volunteering at the World AIDS Conference 2008 which was held in Mexico City, Mexico, August 3-9, 2008.  Well, I learned so much while doing my volunteer duties at the Media Center.  During the conference, all of the press conferences were held in the Media Center. First, I will describe my duties and then I will answer my own question above.  As a World AIDS Conference 2008 volunteer, I was teamed with a group of other volunteers – many from the local university and some who traveled as far as from Japan, Senegal and Europe to volunteer. They were mostly young people.  I would say the median ages was about 17 to 25.  We were expected to arrive for our duties by 0630 and were released by 1400 or 2p.m..  A light breakfast and a very filling lunch was served everyday.  We worked in groups of 3 to 4 and everyone had their assignment given to them at the beginning of the day.  There was no skipping out.  In the Media Center, all of the reporters, news anchors etc. stayed to write articles, have private press conferences with the speakers or just plain lunch outings.  The volunteers either set up the press rooms, copied documents, attended to the needs of the speakers and journalists or just gave direction or information.  While the days were long and my legs were killing me from standing for long hours, I had a great time.  I met many new people from all over the world and even met a young lady from Alexandria, Virginia name Alex.  It was wonderful to team up with a group of enthusiastic young people.  I found out that many of them knew very little about HIV and I was able to educate as well as volunteer.  Some of the things I learned at the conference were related to new treatment issues. I won't discuss them here.

The most important thing I would like to put into the hearts of anyone who reads this message is this: You only have one life to live.  HIV is 100% preventable.  You should prolong having sex until you meet someone you can take home to mom and dad as your lifelong partner.....husband or wife.  If you choose to take the risk - Protect Yourself!  The condom has long been studied and has been shown to be effective in the prevention of HIV and other STD's.  There are some of these diseases that you will acquire and you will not be able to give them back, for example, HIV, HPV, Herpes, Hepatitis.  There are no cures for these - only medication that you will have to take for the REST OF YOUR YOUNG LIFE.  The FEMALE CONDOM is available to women to help protect themselves if they choose to take that step.   Don't make excuses why you cannot use it.  Practice makes perfect.  If you are sexually active the only choices you have are YES and NO.  If you say “yes“ you better be willing to suffer the consequences if you choose not to protect yourself.  Everybody thinks it cannot happen to them.  DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE - it can.  Everybody thinks it can't happen the first time. DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE - it only takes once. All of these lies have led so many people down the road of destruction. My final words to you all is if you are going to make a sacrifice of your life, VOLUNTEER for a good cause - something you believe in.  You will be surprised at how enriched your life will be.

If you haven't seen the FEMALE CONDOM you can see it here, FC Female Condom. If you need to know where to go in your city for a demonstration I will direct you.  Leave me a message or send and email.

Much Love,

Yvonne Washington-Turay
Founder, God’s House International