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On Sunday, the NAACP joined forces
with African-American church leaders in Texas on the first national “Day of
Unity” against HIV. The outreach encouraged pastors to take an active role in
fighting the spread of HIV and provided testing and education to the black
community.
The Rev. Timothy Sloan at the St.
Luke Missionary Baptist Church in Humble was tested for HIV during the church
service by a member of a local wellness center. He preached, “This is an
epidemic; we must address the issue if we are going to defeat it. Today I
encourage everyone here to get tested.” He added, “Know your status.”
Also on Sunday, a training manual,
“The Black Church and HIV: The Social Justice Imperative,” was unveiled. It
focuses on providing church leaders with the tools they need to talk about
HIV/AIDS within their communities.
Sloan told his congregation it is
important to get the word out to other churches and community members. “We’ve
got to stop the ‘ostrich syndrome,' where we stick our heads in the sand and
pretend these issues aren’t happening.” Houston has about 22,000 HIV/AIDS
cases. In 2010, about 42 percent of the 4,242 Texans diagnosed with HIV were
black.
Tiffany Crawford, leader of the
church’s health awareness program, said, “There is a stigma with AIDS in the
African-American community, and it has become very important in this day and
age to get tested.”
Both the NAACP and St. Luke leaders
plan to use momentum from Sunday’s event to start an HIV prevention movement.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
