Birmingham 1 - HIV/AIDS

MONDAY MARCH 25, 2013

“We need to make this a medical issue, not a moral one.”

Monday was our first official day with AIDS Alabama and IT WAS AMAZING! We learned so much! We met up at their headquarters in downtown Birmingham and were greeted by their head of Development, Carly. Carly was young and fabulous and fit in with us right away (not to mention she had really cute wedges on. They’re from Target, we asked). We started out with a simple get-to-know you question and answer session and found out the following:

-          Alyssa is afraid of cotton balls for absolutely no reason whatsoever

-          Ashley is afraid of blocks of cheese

-          Nick loves Space Jams and would love to use the theme song at his wedding

-          Emily is afraid of butterflies

-          Trey was nicknamed Fishsticks in high school

-          Emily has travelled all over the world and lived in Canada for a bit (who knew it was a real place and not just a myth?)

We also got to know the incredible Carly, and here’s what we found out:

-          She majored in Psychology at Samford in Birmingham

-          Her husband, Bricky, had a grooms-cake made out of cheese wheels

-          They actually played the Space Jams theme song at their wedding

-          She oversees marketing, relations, and about a hundred other aspects of AIDs Alabama

-          She has two different colored eyes!

Carly gave us an overview of AIDs Alabama and answered questions. We learned so many amazing things!

-          Nine out of the 10 states where AIDs is most fatal are in the South.

-          Alabama has the 8^th highest mortality rate from AIDs

-          1 in 296 people in Alabama are HIV positive

-          People who adhere to HIV treatments are 96% less likely to spread the disease

-          You can buy over the counter HIV test kits at Walgreens

-          AIDs affects black men, men who have sex with men, and black women more than other groups

-          20% of people living with AIDs have no idea of their status, and 60% of youths who are affected are unaware they’re carrying the disease.

-          The South gets $1,000 less per person affected by HIV than other places, even though they’re the most affected

-          Even though Alabama teaches Abstinence Only sex education, they are the most sexually active state in the country

Along with the Sex Education Department head, Greg, Carly explained more of what AIDs Alabama does. AIDs Alabama provides a variety of resources including 9 different housing units (temporary, permanent, rentals, and one of the only housing units in the country for people dually diagnosed with HIV/AIDs and a mental illness), medication, counseling, fellowship, education, resources, and so much more. They have a “Beauty in Knowing” unit that teaches cosmetologists  facts on sexual health so that they can facilitate beneficial conversations in beauty shops, where women feel comfortable discussing such issues. They work with big organizations like MAC make up as well as other foundations for AIDs awareness and research. Since AIDs often targets the impoverished, AIDs Alabama works hard to provide awareness, free testing and medical aid to everyone possible. Their housing allows for a lot of assistance and eventually autonomy as members of the community are educated and pursue new ventures. AIDs Alabama offers hope and shelter to many affected by a disease that often causes people to turn away from their loved ones out of fear of the unknown.

Here’s another AWESOME AIDs Alabama fact: the top three executive positions, including the CEO, are held by women! That’s right! Passionate, powerful, game changing women. CEO Kathy Heirs is on Obama’s advisory board and she’s simply divine. She introduced us to Cricket (that’s a true southern name yall) and Sarah, two women from RESULTS which is an AIDs Education Advocacy group. We also met Toko, from Malawi, Africa who told us her own powerful story. Toko was one in a family of six, and one of the only members who did not die from AIDs. The issue is deeply personal to her, and she’s travelling the country in order to make the issue more globally invested and to humanize the disease. And yes, we did tell her all about Mizzou for Malawi (she LOVED it!).  Kathy gave us one of most important messages about AIDs: “We need to make this a medical issue, not a moral one.” We learned all about the associated stigmas and even the science behind AIDs. In addition to the speakers, we also took a tour of the “campus” (a renovated church acting as apartments and a community center as well as several housing units).

Dinner that night was TACO NIGHT. Emily and Troy made tacos, burritos, and chips with pico de gallo and queso. No one was mad about it.  Post dinner involved several more rounds of Werewolf along with a group decision to go see a movie.

Nick made the executive decision to see Oz in which James Franco stars as himself, for the most part. It was trippy and strange but we’re all pretty sure we liked it. To be fair, we group texted most of the time and assigned everyone roles based on the movie characters. Nick was the womanizing Oz. No one was surprised. Naomi was the sassy character Nook (a munchkin with an attitude). BK was Glinda because she had great hair, and Amber was the China Doll because she sounded exactly like her. Trey was the lovable oaf of a sidekick, Finley. All in all, we’re not even sure what the movie was about—most of it was spent making parallels with our group. But we had a great time!