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December 1999
Final Commission Hearings Held
Honduras:
In March, at the invitation of Bishop Leo Frade, the Joint Committee on HIV/AIDS of the Episcopal Church, all of whose members are on the board of NEAC, held hearings on AIDS, racism, and the church in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. As The Rt. Rev. Rodney Michel, chair of the committee, noted: “We had come to a country that has 17 percent of the population of Central America and 50 percent of the AIDS cases. We had come to study the extent of the pandemic and to see how the faith community in responding to those infected and affected by the disease. We were moved by what we saw and heard and we were abundantly blessed in what we experienced.”
Bishop Rodney Michel, chair of the Committee on HIV/AIDS, helps a child with AIDS think about a career path; looking on is Canon Lionel Blanco of the Diocese of Honduras.
“People with HIV/AIDS live quiet, hidden lives so that they won’t be discriminated against or ostracized by society. We learned that the cost of the medicines that give hope to people with HIV/AIDS in our country prohibits any one but the very wealthy from ever receiving them in Honduras. Diagnostic testing equipment, taken for granted in to many places, is non-existent in Honduras. People are refused employment or released from their jobs if they are found to be HIV positive. The government is unable to fund programs that would prevent HIV/AIDS mothers from passing the disease to their unborn babies, and there are countless babies and children who have been abandoned because they carry the modern-day plague.”
One of the commission members, Bruce Garner, wrote up his own impressions. Here are some excerpts:
Meeting HIV face to face: Three men in their late twenties and a woman in her early thirties sharing with us the reality of living with HIV in Honduras. There are no HIV drugs for adults. The government makes promises, but does not come through. Emphasis is placed on prevention as much as possible — not on caring for those who are already sick. The cost of anti-virals is beyond the reach of all but the rich … People are fired from their jobs if they are found to be HIV positive. Others are refused employment on the basis of their HIV status — US companies doing business in Honduras engaging in obvious discrimination due to HIV. Hiding HIV status and sexual orientation due to ignorance and bigotry — unable to live your life honestly.
Feeling the pain of survivor guilt: Sitting across the table from three fresh-faced, hopeful young adults, desperate for the drugs they need to survive. Knowing that I have at my disposal all the treatment possibilities I need to combat the virus in my own body, any anti-viral drug I need, any protease inhibitor, any diagnostic test. The discomfort that comes from the realization that I take for granted what is only a dream for these four people and thousands of others … Seeing their faces literally light up the moment I said the words: I’m living with HIV. A bond formed, though we communicated only through translators and are likely to never lay eyes on each other again. Feeling discomfort as they plaintively and hopefully ask if I had brought any HIV drugs with me. Wanting, out of a desperate need to help, to hand them what I had brought, yet knowing I had to give the precious few pills in my luggage to the doctor to insure those who needed them most got them. Answering their questions about my own T-cell counts and viral load statistics and wondering if my apparent good health was a source of hope for them or if it was a source of further despair. Feeling both frustration and relief that the meeting was over. I never anticipated that my emotions would be so raw — I was worn out.
Visiting a home for children living with AIDS: None of them knew what was wrong with them. They were aware that they all took medicines, but they didn’t know why. Watching shy smiles, bright eyes, hearing giggles and laughter as they engaged the hearts of what had to be an odd assortment of folks who had come to visit … The tears flow now — thank God they didn’t then…
Tony Hinds, R.N., shares a laugh with two English nurses, volunteers on the staff of the Hospice San Jose.
Visiting an AIDS hospice for adults: If only for a fleeting second, am I seeing my own future? Sharing the obvious joy of a nurse in telling us that a fair number of their patients have regained enough of their health to leave. How can that be when there are no drugs to give them? God must be at work in this place.
Seattle:
In the Seattle area, although minorities are only 3 percent of the local population, they account for 12 percent of the AIDS cases. A representative of People of Color against AIDS said, “There is no vested interest in dealing with people of color in AIDS funding here.”
Materials used in the Men with Men education programs of POCAN are designed to be generic rather than “gay” for better acceptance by the community.
There is a distrust of health services related to research because of the Tuskegee experiments.
A representative of Street Outreach Services spoke of the importance of treating addiction as a mental health, not a moral, issue; many religious shelters will not allow education about safe sex or drugs; the six-months sober policies of many transitional services are unrealistic.
The pastor of the Sojourner Truth Unity Fellowship described a model of non-judgmental “loving of the untouchable.” She also talked of “oppression sickness,” the turning of one group against another in its own quest for acceptance.
Wyoming:
The Rev. Richard Brewer, vice chair of the Committee, and Committee member Mary Ellen Honsaker (center) with our hosts on the Wind River Reservation, the Rev. Harold Eagle Bull (l) and the Rev. Ann Fontaine.
“Where you’re from, AIDS is no longer so awful; in Wyoming, if you have AIDS, you’re a terrible, terrible person,” said one witness at the hearings.
Lee and Kathleen Lopez, directors of the Urban Native American Program in Cheyenne share their insights at the hearing.
Wyoming is 94 percent white, with only one city having more than 50,000 people. The state has allocated not one penny for prevention, education, or treatment. In that city, the African-American AIDS Project, run entirely by volunteers, had to change its name to the African-American Wellness Project for greater acceptability.
On the Wind River Reservation, where the hearings were held, “there’s a shame about” AIDS. “The kids are in denial,” said one witness. “Acceptance of information is very slow.” Yet there is a youth group called the Spiritual Warriors who have written a play about how HIV is transmitted.” The situation is complicated, however, by the prevalence of alcoholism.
The NEAC board takes a break from its meetings at St. Thomas Church in Dubois, Wyoming.
