Thursday, April 17, 2008
For years, AIDS outreach workers have tried to offer AIDS testing in environments outside of sterile and impersonal health clinics.
"African-Americans were not exactly breaking down the doors of the health department to be HIV-tested," said Mellita Mills-Kendrick, a regional AIDS coordinator for the state.
Polk County health workers have set up shop in laundromats, convenience stores and beauty salons, launching a campaign several years ago to train beauticians as outreach workers. The Daytona Beach-based Stewart-Marchman Foundation teams with restaurants to offer coupons for free meals to people who agree to have their cheeks swabbed for the test.
The disease's spread has slowed, but with medical advances people are living longer.
"We're dealing with three generations of people now that are impacted by HIV/AIDS," said the Rev. Ronald Weatherford, who co-authored Somebody's Knocking at Your Door: AIDS and the African-American Church. "For the mainstream churches it is just now becoming something that they are willing to do."
A growing trend
AIDS is becoming a part of religious life at black churches across the country.
According to The Balm in Gilead, a Virginia-based group that has fought AIDS for nearly 20 years, churches that offer AIDS and HIV outreach now number in the thousands. A growing number, said the Rev. Makeba D'Abreu, director of the group's domestic program, are offering on-site testing.
Recently, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, took an AIDS test in front of churchgoers.
Warnock has been targeting what he calls the unholy trinity of silence, shame and stigma.
"Stigma has to do with culture and values," he said. "Ministers can do more to undermine the stigma piece than anybody else."
That unholy trinity has been fading at Smith's church, Green's Chapel AME, where HIV testing continues, and where he says the congregation has "seen the light."
SOURCE
"African-Americans were not exactly breaking down the doors of the health department to be HIV-tested," said Mellita Mills-Kendrick, a regional AIDS coordinator for the state.
Polk County health workers have set up shop in laundromats, convenience stores and beauty salons, launching a campaign several years ago to train beauticians as outreach workers. The Daytona Beach-based Stewart-Marchman Foundation teams with restaurants to offer coupons for free meals to people who agree to have their cheeks swabbed for the test.
The disease's spread has slowed, but with medical advances people are living longer.
"We're dealing with three generations of people now that are impacted by HIV/AIDS," said the Rev. Ronald Weatherford, who co-authored Somebody's Knocking at Your Door: AIDS and the African-American Church. "For the mainstream churches it is just now becoming something that they are willing to do."
A growing trend
AIDS is becoming a part of religious life at black churches across the country.
According to The Balm in Gilead, a Virginia-based group that has fought AIDS for nearly 20 years, churches that offer AIDS and HIV outreach now number in the thousands. A growing number, said the Rev. Makeba D'Abreu, director of the group's domestic program, are offering on-site testing.
Recently, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, took an AIDS test in front of churchgoers.
Warnock has been targeting what he calls the unholy trinity of silence, shame and stigma.
"Stigma has to do with culture and values," he said. "Ministers can do more to undermine the stigma piece than anybody else."
That unholy trinity has been fading at Smith's church, Green's Chapel AME, where HIV testing continues, and where he says the congregation has "seen the light."
SOURCE
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