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“But Some of
Us Are Brave”: The Courage and Vision |
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by Layli Phillips |
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In 1977, the
Combahee River Collective (CRC) penned the statement, “If Black women
were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since
our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of
oppression” (CRC, 1982, p. 278). In
that same treatise, the CRC wrote, “We realize that the only people who
care enough about us to work consistently for our liberation are us.
Our politics evolve from a healthy love for ourselves, our sisters,
and our community . . .” (p. 275).
Nearly a generation later, the global Black community -- and, in
particular, Black women of the world -- faces one of the most serious and
insidious threats to its survival in the form of HIV/AIDS.
HIV/AIDS is the Number Two killer of U.S. Black women between the
ages of 25-44 (Sternberg, 1998), with 1 out of every 160 Black women
infected (Rosen, 1999). Current
reports indicate that poor, young, Black women between the ages of 16-21
are contracting HIV/AIDS at rates which exceed all other racial, gender,
and class subgroups in the U.S. population (Bynum, 1998; Kim, 1998).
In some African nations, such as Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland, and
Zimbabwe, which exist at the “epicenter of the global pandemic” (Sternberg,
1998, p. 3A), between 1 in 5 and 1 in 3 people is infected with the HIV
virus. Women are a
disproportionate number of those infected. Here in the U.S.,
educational and medical developments which have helped stave the spread of
HIV/AIDS have tended to benefit white males, particularly white gay men,
and people of the higher socioeconomic strata, regardless of race (Cimons,
1998; Page, 1998; Rosen, 1999). The
cost of state-of-the-art drug therapies can run approximately $10,000 per
year (Cimons, 1998), and educational outreach programs often bypass
individuals, disproportionately the poor, who lack contact with schools
and health care systems (Bynum, 1998; Lusane, 1998; Rosen, 1999; Sternberg,
1998). In addition,
prevention efforts often fail to take into account cultural nuances in
sexual behavior and Efforts by the
Black community to address the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS, as
well as to educate those who might be at risk for contracting HIV/AIDS,
have been fraught with obstacles. Besides
the obvious lack of financial resources which has plagued many groups
desiring to work with people with HIV/AIDS, many Black communities have
struggled with the stigma and controversy attached to “drug addicts,
gays, the poor, ex-convicts and other groups that are seen as the major
conduits of HIV into the Black community” (Lusane, 1998, p. 15A).
Through the nurturing of its own, the African American community
has long functioned as a welcoming bosom to society’s disenfranchised
and is no stranger to the support of individuals, often Black, who exist
at society’s margins. Yet,
there is often a cautiousness about becoming associated with groups who
may be perceived as “immoral,” because such associations may reinforce
stereotypes about Blacks which persist in the larger American community. Thus, the line between galvanizing the community’s
resources and resolve behind people with HIV/AIDS and feeding more fuel to
the fires of racism and discrimination has been a difficult one to walk. Fortunately,
“some of us are brave” (Hull, Bell Scott, & Smith, 1982).
At the heart of the courage to address the needs of women living
with HIV/AIDS or at risk for contracting HIV/AIDS, especially women of
color and poor women, stands the SisterLove Women’s AIDS Project of
Atlanta, Georgia. For a
wealth of information about SisterLove, go to the web site:
“SisterLove,
Inc., is a nonprofit women’s organization established to provide
education, prevention, housing, and support services to women who are at
risk for or already infected with HIV, or who have AIDS.
The Atlanta-based project’s primary goals are to instill
education and empowerment in women of color at risk, to fill the existing
gap in HIV/AIDS housing and support services for women and their families
who are affected by HIV infection, and to reduce the spread of HIV through
outreach, self-organizing, and networking. . . .
“Founded in
1989, SisterLove can trace its beginning back eleven years [Editor’s
note: now thirteen] to a
volunteer group of women interested in educating Atlanta communities of
women about AIDS prevention and self-help safer sex techniques.
Thus, in 1986 the first Safer Sex Party for women in the Atlanta
metropolitan area was developed at AID Atlanta, Inc., the state’s
largest AIDS service organization. In
1987, one of the women on the committee assumed responsibility for
providing the parties in a collaborative effort with local women’s
organizations. The Women’s
AIDS Prevention Project (WAPP) of the Feminist Women’s Health Center was
then formed and funded for nearly two years, and then closed.
“With the
support of WAPP’s women of color Advisory Board, the Director of WAPP
then became the Founder and Director of SisterLove women’s AIDS Project,
which officially became SisterLove, Inc., some three years later in 1992.
Dázon Dixon, Founder/President, modified the previous program to
capture the interest and respond to the needs of women at high risk,
particularly women of color. SisterLove
is currently serving over 200 HIV+ women and their families per year
through support groups, housing, and support service referrals and
coordination of care with other related agencies. In addition, SisterLove conducts prevention intervention
presentations and workshops for over 3000 women, men, and youth each year. “To date,
SisterLove is the first and only organization in metropolitan Atlanta
dedicated specifically to the education, housing, and support of women at
high risk for HIV infection and women living with HIV/AIDS.
In addition to addressing the lack of information and
self-empowerment that puts women most at risk for HIV/AIDS, we celebrate
the power and strength that women possess as a way for change.
We actively recruit HIV+ women and women living with AIDS to
involve themselves in their own well-being and to receive the attention
and support services that most agencies serving Persons Living with AIDS
traditionally provide for men. “SisterLove has
expanded over the years from humbly beginning as an educational and
outreach program to providing full-scale social support services --
including housing, counseling, day activities, and case management. In addition, we have provided program development assistance
to dozens of agencies, and networking opportunities to our volunteers and
clients at regional, national, and international levels.” SisterLove
sponsors several types of projects: the Healthy Love Party, a safer sex
education workshop for women; the Careworks Volunteer Program, which
channels volunteers into various departments of the organization’s
activity; Project Azuka and Extended Sisters, geared towards reaching
rural women in Savannah and Columbus, Georgia, respectively; Ourtime:
Private Healing Retreat, a four-day weekend developed by and for HIV+
women; Loveworks Day Activities Program, an ongoing workshop series; and
LoveHouse Supportive Living Program, a transitional housing environment
for HIV+ women and their children. SisterLove
also sponsors facilitator training for all of their programs, and program
development assistance to other organizations with allied goals. Womanist
Theory & Research salutes the women of SisterLove, Inc., and their
unfailing work to support women living with HIV/AIDS, as well as their
sisters who may be at risk for HIV/AIDS.
This staff includes several people whom we would like to recognize
by name: Dázon Dixon, Founder/Director; Loretta Ross, Founding Board
Member and Founder/Director of the Center for Human Rights Education;
Lillie Steadman, Receptionist, formerly of the National Black Women’s
Health Project (and going strong at age 83!); Janine Grantham, Education
Program Coordinator and scholar of women’s economic human rights; Zina
Age-Moore, Housing Program Manager and Founder of Aniz, a program for
children whose parents are living with HIV/AIDS; Nailah Ruffin, Support
Services Coordinator and graduate student in Clark Atlanta University’s
Africana Women’s Studies Program; Nyrobi Moss, Resident Manager,
actress, and undergraduate at Georgia State University; and Tamara Godfrey
and Rennetta Mulkey, Spelman College Interns and psychology and sociology
majors, respectively. These
women embody the womanist values of being “responsible, in charge, and
serious” (Walker, 1983). In
the tradition of our foremothers, they keep many pots on the fire
simultaneously! Further information about SisterLove can be obtained
from: SisterLove, Inc. References Bynum, R. (1998, Aug.
28). Study finds infection
rates higher for poor females age 16-21 than
males. Buffalo News,
p. 16A. Cimons,
M. (1998, Oct. 8). AIDS falls off list of top 10 killers in U.S.
Los Angeles Combahee River Collective (1977/1982).
The Combahee River Collective statement. In B. Smith (Ed.), HOMEGIRLS:
A Black feminist anthology (pp. 272-82).
New Hull,
G. T., Bell Scott, P., & Smith, B.
(Eds.) (1982).
All the women are White, all the Kim,
L. L. (1998, Aug. 28). Health watch: Rx for risk: Poor, young, black, female: That Klonoff, E. A., Landrine, H., & Scott, J. (1995). Double jeopardy: Ethnicity and gender psychology: Theory, research, and practice (pp. 335-60). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 1995. Lusane,
C. (1998, July 9). The AIDS crisis among Blacks [Editorial].
Baltimore Sun, Page,
S. (1998, Oct. 28). Minority AIDS crisis declared.
USA Today, p. 1A. Rosen, M. (1999, Feb. 27). AIDS soars in Blacks: Infection, deaths at record pace nationwide. New York Daily News, p. 2. Sternberg,
S. (1998, Nov. 24). World AIDS report says epidemic is growing.
USA Walker, A. (1983). In search of our mothers’ gardens: Womanist prose. New York: Harcourt Brace. Layli Phillips is Assistant Professor of Psychology and African American Studies at
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