The recent Tucson Weekly article, Looking Back, Looking Forward – HIV/AIDS in Pima County, missed a part of the story. To paraphrase Abigail Adams, she asked her husband to “remember the ladies.” Although the context is different, I am asking that we “remember the ladies” when discussing HIV/AIDS. Women have been dying since the beginning, and continue to die today.
The facts are, women are part of the pandemic, and have been for the past 30+ years. In Terri Wilder’s, A Timeline of Women Living With HIV: Past, Present and Future – Introduction, she writes, “Today, women are fighting to be recognized in the AIDS epidemic as if it were 1981.” We are a voice yet to be heard. We are only now being asked to “sit at the table” about planning and being involved in the treatment and care of women living with HIV/AIDS. My diagnosis with HIV in 2006 started a new chapter in my life. Getting tested was an ordeal. I am currently a patient and a client of several local HIV/AIDS organizations. However, there is only one woman-centered HIV program in Tucson, and participants must be clients in the behavioral health clinic. So, in 2012 I founded PowerSource Tucson, Inc., a non-profit organization, as an empowerment program for women living with HIV/AIDS in the Tucson area. Board members include women from the different risk categories – African American, Latina, Native American, refugees and me, an older white woman. PowerSource Tucson will host the Tucson Summit – HIV+ Women Today in late fall of 2015. For more information about PowerSource, visit the website www.powersourcetucson.org . Sincerely,
Barbara J Lock
Executive Officer
PowerSource Tucson, Inc
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The facts are, women are part of the pandemic, and have been for the past 30+ years. In Terri Wilder’s, A Timeline of Women Living With HIV: Past, Present and Future – Introduction, she writes, “Today, women are fighting to be recognized in the AIDS epidemic as if it were 1981.” We are a voice yet to be heard. We are only now being asked to “sit at the table” about planning and being involved in the treatment and care of women living with HIV/AIDS. My diagnosis with HIV in 2006 started a new chapter in my life. Getting tested was an ordeal. I am currently a patient and a client of several local HIV/AIDS organizations. However, there is only one woman-centered HIV program in Tucson, and participants must be clients in the behavioral health clinic. So, in 2012 I founded PowerSource Tucson, Inc., a non-profit organization, as an empowerment program for women living with HIV/AIDS in the Tucson area. Board members include women from the different risk categories – African American, Latina, Native American, refugees and me, an older white woman. PowerSource Tucson will host the Tucson Summit – HIV+ Women Today in late fall of 2015. For more information about PowerSource, visit the website www.powersourcetucson.org . Sincerely,
Barbara J Lock
Executive Officer
PowerSource Tucson, Inc