Building A Movement To End AIDS

David Furnish explains how the Elton John AIDS Foundation is helping us reach an AIDS-free world.
From: NewNowNext

 This World AIDS Day marks 35 years since the first cases of HIV/AIDS appeared in the United States. To date, this horrible disease has claimed the lives of over 35 million people globally.

But World AIDS Day also marks something else. It marks the beginning of a movement, of a fierce, three-decades long fight to end the epidemic.

It was the LGBTQ movement that gained momentum first. The community organized, quickly realizing they’d have to care for one another. They had nowhere else to turn. Doctors debated whether they had a moral obligation to treat patients with HIV. Politicians were not talking about the epidemic. Everyone was afraid.

 The movement was born out of necessity. And it’s evolved out of necessity.

This epidemic has always preyed on the most vulnerable people in our society – people who don’t have access to the healthcare they need, people who our legislators fail to serve.

Take a look at the organizations fighting HIV/AIDS today and you’ll see they are representative of the communities most impacted by the epidemic: people of color, gay men, the transgender community, and those who battle with drug addiction.

 The Elton John AIDS Foundation is proud to be a part of this incredible movement. We have been for 25 years. It’s been an honor to support thousands of organizations across the United States and around the world since our founding.

And, true to the roots of this movement – to what makes it so strong – each one of the organizations we support focuses on a particular aspect of the fight against HIV/AIDS.

My Brother’s Keeper, for instance, works in Jackson, Mississippi—where approximately 3,500 people are living with HIV. Many of them do not know they are infected or are not accessing the care they need.

With support from EJAF last year, My Brother’s Keeper—and its partner clinic, Open Arms—helped over 100 black gay men access social support and medical services and helped 200 people to start pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a daily pill that helps HIV-uninfected people to prevent HIV infection.

 In Puerto Rico, Intercambios works to support the overwhelming number of people contracting HIV through unsafe drug use in the country. There, unsafe syringes account for 71 percent of all HIV infections among women and 37 percent of all HIV infections in men. In the past year, with support from EJAF and Housing Works, Intercambios served 795 people who inject drugs and distributed more than 165,000 clean syringes while removing 148,500 used syringes from circulation.

Health Frontiers in Tijuana and Centro de Servicios, both organizations EJAF supports, work in Tijuana, Mexico—where some 10,000 people are living with HIV. There, populations at high risk include gay men, transgender people, sex workers and people who inject drugs.

And yet, the city lacks HIV testing where it would do the most good: in places like gay bars or the red light district. This year, EJAF provided grants to the two organizations to improve HIV testing and care for these key populations. In 6 months, they reached over 2,600 people with HIV testing, half of them were migrants and all were at risk due to unprotected sex or injection drug use.

Organizations like these, and the movement they make up, are the reason we’ve come so far in this fight. Together, they fill open gaps in servicing vulnerable people, and combat the disease on its many fronts.

They are the reason that we’re becoming a more equal and just society. They are the reason that we’re seeing less discrimination, and more compassion. They are the reason that we’re inching closer, every day, to an AIDS-free world.

To donate to the Elton John AIDS Foundation, click here.