IMHO; We need to have our own OCGA! However; I am still a bit put off by the Term Occupy, how abt to show our Comprehension & Solidarity we substitute it with OUTREACH & we'd have OCvgGA!? We can start the Conversation this Monday evening @ "Come, Remember, Respond" A Northern Kentucky CommUNITY Event for Hungry and Homeless... Hosted by the NoKy Hungry & Homeless Committee at "The MACC"!
OUTREACH Covington General Assembly We need to all realize and agree that if We don't know how to live With Each other, We're all gonna perish together! Maybe I'll bump into y'all @ WhineFest! I'll have free Condoms & Literature from NoKy HIV/AIDS Care Coordinators...
"When the drumbeat changes The DANCE Changes"
Divert 20 % of International AIDS relief money to help American PLWHA
I write to you today as a fellow American, and one of 1.2 million Americans living with HIV/AIDS, and with a solution to the AIDS crisis occuring right here in the United States. The soulution is simple: divert 20 % of International US AIDS relief money to help Americans living with HIV/AIDS. Under PEPFAR (Presidents emergency plan for AIDS relief, inacted in 2003 under George W Bush) we send billions upon billions every year for overseas intitatives such as money for the Global Fund, UN AIDS, and other international intitiatives.
On the 30th year of the AIDS epidemic our country is facing a perilous time in the fight against HIV/AIDS. You Mr. President have an opportunity to END AIDS as we know it while you are in office, however; today we are approaching 10,000 Americans waiting to receive lifesaving HIV medications (this number has grown from 99 people in June 2009). We are facing public health crisis, unseen since the epidemic began. The weak economy has crippled state and federal budgets that pay into ADAP; the government program that provides life-sustaining antiretroviral drugs to people with HIV/AIDS who cannot afford them. In addition, prevention initiatives and other supportive services such as HOPWA funds have dried up in communities across the Nation.
Further, many states have employed cost containment strategies, such as reduced formularies, lowered eligibility levels, client cost sharing, or program enrollment caps. These strategies have dis-enrolled individuals who would have previously qualified (ref: nastad.org).
Without reliable access to the medications, which cost patients in the AIDS Drug Assistance Program an average of $12,000-$15,000 a year, people with HIV are more likely to develop full-blown AIDS, transmit the virus and require expensive hospitalizations, and die.
Mr. President, your administrations immediate intervention along with Congress is needed to avert countless and needless American deaths.
Earlier in the year CDC guidelines were changed suggesting those newly infected begin treatment earlier, rather than later. Further, On May 12th, 2011 the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill led an international study that shows early treatment with antiretroviral therapy prevents HIV transmission. The result of the study was that those taking ARV were 96 percent less likely to pass on the disease than those who didn’t take ARV. This critical new finding convincingly demonstrates that early treatment of infected individuals can have a major impact on the spread of the epidemic.
As we are being told in national, state, and local campaigns to get tested and to know our status; in the same breath, those testing positive are being told they cannot be helped. People are sent away with their name on a wait-list to receive antiretroviral medicine, and HOPING they will be called. These are Americans with no insurance or inadequate insurance that cannot afford the highly expensive drugs. These are Americans laid off from their job and who have to choose between paying for food or for life saving medication. This is not the American way
In the 80’s our government did nothing to recognize the AIDS problem. It wasn’t until individuals, while watching dozens upon dozens of friends and loved ones die, and they themselves on the brink of death that a movement began to recognize AIDS and to demand treatment and services for those infected. If full funding for ADAP and other vital HIV/AIDS services is not restored then we WILL have flashback to the 80’s; people dying. This time, not because we have no medicine to treat the disease, but because we don’t have the funding to do so.
Mr. President, you re-authorized the Ryan White care act on October 30th, 2009. I watched on July 14th, 2010 when you talked about the National HIV/AIDS strategy (a speech that spoke to me profoundly). I listened encouraged, hopeful, and with enthusiasm. The strategy set ambitious goals of reducing new infections by 25 percent over the next five years; getting treatment for 85 percent of patients within three months of their diagnosis; and increasing education about the virus, even in communities with low rates of infection. You said you were committed to focusing the public's attention on ending the DOMESTIC HIV epidemic.
Without immediate action on behalf of your administration and congress we will not meet the above goals, and people WILL die without these medications. Action is needed now in order to avert deaths, and an impending public health calamity with widening health disparities in communities across the country.
The undersigned and I ask that your administration work together with congress to re-double efforts in order to live up to your commitments set forth in the re-authorizing of the Ryan White Care act and speaking on the implementation of the National HIV/AIDS strategy.
Mr. President, I voted for you in 2008, because I knew you were a man of character, and someone who I thought would keep his promises. While I know you’ve been met with a less than cooperative house and senate, a bold response to be presented on this crisis is needed! Ads have been running by AHF (AIDS Healthcare Foundation) asking “What has the President done about AIDS” with an image of you walking away with your back turned. I know you are better than this! I still believe you are a man of character, and I am hopeful you will live up to your promise on re-focusing the nation’s attention on the domestic HIV epidemic.
Until there is a cure we must make sure every American living with HIV/AIDS has access to life saving medications and supportive services. Instead of sending every dime of 7.2 billion Divert 20 % of International AIDS relief money to help American PLWHA!?
Thank you for taking the time to read my letter, to review the signatures and comments left on this petition and for your immediate attention and leadership on this crisis! I look forward to a positive response.
Respectfully yours,Kevin Maloney, “Voices of unity strengthening community”
Michael "SoBankQueenBee" Connett, 20 Year Veteran/Survivor
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Free meal, service honors homeless
COVINGTON - With a goal of helping those in need and drawing attention to the number of people who struggle with homelessness, Madison Avenue Christian Church in Covington is once again hosting the annual Northern Kentucky Homeless Awareness Event on Monday, Oct. 17 at 6 pm. The evening starts with a memorial service, which is followed by a cookout and celebration.
"There are so many homeless people who die each year due to weather, crime and hunger," said Chinna Simon, pastor of Madison Avenue Christian Church. "We read the names of all those who have died through the year and remember them."
Vicky Bauerle, the event organizer, said although they use this time to reflect on those who have died, they use this opportunity to let others in similar situations know they are not alone.
"We want people who are homeless to come and we want those who are not to come as well," she said. "We want everyone to eat together and have a conversation."
Representatives from service agencies will be available to connect with those in need, but Bauerle said the goal of the event is to treat everyone to a meal and some respect.
"Everyone wants to be served and cared for," she said.
The free meal will consist of hot dogs, hamburgers, soups and according to Bauerle, anything else that shows up. Partnering organizations donate all the food.
The meal is free to everyone and there will be games and activities for children. Everyone who attends is welcome to a bag filled with things like socks, gloves, toiletries and rain ponchos.
Simon explained that the memorial service is moving but then the cook-out allows everyone to give thanks for the volunteers and celebrate the lives that have been touched.
"We invite everyone to come and get involved," he said. "The need is great with this economy, but the more people get involved, it allows us to grow our programs."
"The joy people receive by volunteering, they cannot receive in any other way," he said.
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Free meal, service honors homeless
COVINGTON - With a goal of helping those in need and drawing attention to the number of people who struggle with homelessness, Madison Avenue Christian Church in Covington is once again hosting the annual Northern Kentucky Homeless Awareness Event on Monday, Oct. 17 at 6 pm. The evening starts with a memorial service, which is followed by a cookout and celebration.
"There are so many homeless people who die each year due to weather, crime and hunger," said Chinna Simon, pastor of Madison Avenue Christian Church. "We read the names of all those who have died through the year and remember them."
Vicky Bauerle, the event organizer, said although they use this time to reflect on those who have died, they use this opportunity to let others in similar situations know they are not alone.
"We want people who are homeless to come and we want those who are not to come as well," she said. "We want everyone to eat together and have a conversation."
Representatives from service agencies will be available to connect with those in need, but Bauerle said the goal of the event is to treat everyone to a meal and some respect.
"Everyone wants to be served and cared for," she said.
The free meal will consist of hot dogs, hamburgers, soups and according to Bauerle, anything else that shows up. Partnering organizations donate all the food.
The meal is free to everyone and there will be games and activities for children. Everyone who attends is welcome to a bag filled with things like socks, gloves, toiletries and rain ponchos.
Simon explained that the memorial service is moving but then the cook-out allows everyone to give thanks for the volunteers and celebrate the lives that have been touched.
"We invite everyone to come and get involved," he said. "The need is great with this economy, but the more people get involved, it allows us to grow our programs."
"The joy people receive by volunteering, they cannot receive in any other way," he said.
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"There are so many homeless people who die each year due to weather, crime and hunger," said Chinna Simon, pastor of Madison Avenue Christian Church. "We read the names of all those who have died through the year and remember them."
Vicky Bauerle, the event organizer, said although they use this time to reflect on those who have died, they use this opportunity to let others in similar situations know they are not alone.
"We want people who are homeless to come and we want those who are not to come as well," she said. "We want everyone to eat together and have a conversation."
Representatives from service agencies will be available to connect with those in need, but Bauerle said the goal of the event is to treat everyone to a meal and some respect.
"Everyone wants to be served and cared for," she said.
The free meal will consist of hot dogs, hamburgers, soups and according to Bauerle, anything else that shows up. Partnering organizations donate all the food.
The meal is free to everyone and there will be games and activities for children. Everyone who attends is welcome to a bag filled with things like socks, gloves, toiletries and rain ponchos.
Simon explained that the memorial service is moving but then the cook-out allows everyone to give thanks for the volunteers and celebrate the lives that have been touched.
"We invite everyone to come and get involved," he said. "The need is great with this economy, but the more people get involved, it allows us to grow our programs."
"The joy people receive by volunteering, they cannot receive in any other way," he said.
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