National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day: A Man Speaks Up
Today is National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. This day is to highlight the seriousness of HIV and AIDS among women of all ages. We know HIV/AIDS crosses all racial and ethnic lines and that it has no preference regarding age or income. Yet, for Black women, this disease has taken a devastating hold on the community. Approximately half of all women who are infected with HIV are African American. More startling is the fact that it is the leading cause of death for African American women between the ages of 25-34. Though I could continue with the statistics throughout the day, you will read and hear enough to get the grim picture. With this past Monday being International Women’s Day and this week being the National Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS, women will be speaking out on this issue with the pain, passion, and purpose it deserves. Aniz, Inc., with SisterLove, Inc., will be doing its part on March 13th in an event entitled “Wise Words Between Women” to add voice to this epidemic in our community.
So, among the many dynamic and powerful women that are part of Aniz, Inc and its family/community, why am I writing this blog? The straightforward answer is I am a father of two pre-teen girls and the uncle of a niece in her mid-20’s. Add in the cousin, nephew, friend, and even ex of Black women, I have dozens of reasons to write this blog. But is that enough? One statistic I didn’t mention earlier is that almost 80% of all HIV infections among Black women are from heterosexual contact. It is not because they used a toilet in a filthy bathroom. It is not because they ate after someone who was infected. It was not because some homeless-looking person touched them on MARTA. In other words, the vast majority of HIV transmission among Black women is from having sex with men. The remainder are from injecting drugs, more than likely, with a male partner. With the exception of mother-child transmission during pregnancy and breastfeeding, Black men play a direct role in almost every present case of a Black women being infected with HIV. And contrary to the popular myth, it is not because of “Black men on the down-low”.
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Tags: African American Women, Aniz, HIV/AIDS, National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, NWGHAAD, Red Pump Project, SisterLove, Wise Words Between Women
I appreciate your insight into the male psyche. (Not just African American men, but my Latino brotha’ as well). For long women have accepted and endured the stigma that we had to have done something wrong. That we are deserving and should be accepting of what we are “dished out”. I can appreciate any man that can speak with profound appreciation of women and the need for men to take personal responsibility for their actions. Head the warning men, while the women population may seem bountiful at the moment, what is happening may be the pre-cursor to what will inevitably be the end to the means. We began with Adam….what does it take to make sure we don’t end up with the same ending?