National Minority AIDS Council Building Healthier Communities

Ayana Harlee, Bowie State University

 

Hello, my name is Ayana Harlee and I am a peer educator for Bowie State University. My immense passion for teaching and helping others, in conjunction with my enthusiasm for community service, served as the prime reasons for becoming a peer educator. Educating my peers on a significant subject such as HIV/ AIDS gives me great pleasure. My goal is to be able to make a difference in a person’s decision making through my teachings. In my lectures, I try my best to help students understand that when this virus affects one, it affects us all. Knowing the behaviors that can cause this virus to be contracted, and the numerous ways to prevent this virus from putting their life at risk, can help all of my peers make rational decisions about the activities they are involved in.

 

What motivates me to maintain this position is the unsolicited positive feedback I receive from my peers. I have had many students come up to me and say, "I remember you, you did a presentation for my class," or, "I went to get tested last week because I learned a lot from your presentation.” Just to know that I made a difference in someone’s life makes me feel like I have accomplished something. Peer educating brings me great satisfaction and I love doing it for the enjoyment as well as the experience. It brings a smile to my face and tears to my eyes to know that I am apart of change and that the students I teach can become one less victim to this virus.

India Clark, Lead Female Peer Educator, Howard University

Responding to the call of public service is a profound action that requires an uncommon thirst to altruistically work on behalf of others in need. Research shows that of all racial and ethnic groups in the United States, minorities are more likely to abuse drugs and at more risk to contracting STDs.I have answered my calling to public service by fighting against the HIV/AIDS epidemic that exists in the African American community. I use the action verb fighting to describe my work because I believe that reducing the health disparities among those in my community is a tough battle that those in my generation can win by using our unique talents and skills to communicate to our peers that HIV/AIDS is a 100% preventable disease and provide them with the necessary resources to guide them in their decisions on sexual activities.  The disturbing statistics and demographic-related information that surround HIV/AIDS motivates me to be a catalyst for change in the way that HIV/AIDS prevention is promoted. Specific examples of my involvement on campus include assisting in the HIV/AIDS Information Day on Campus and Hip Hop Symposium, coordinating "Peer Talk," an informal discussion about HIV/AIDS prevention with freshmen women, facilitating "Ladies Room," a monthly support group for freshmen women, and helping resident assistants in upperclassmen dormitories facilitate ongoing in-depth conversations that encourage abstinence and safe sex. I realize that the activities and programs that I organize and facilitate as the Lead Female Peer Educator at Howard University play a significant and critical role in this nation's response to its health crisis. For this reason alone, I have made a lifetime commitment to use my creativity and ability to effectively communicate to help my communicate get informed and prevent HIV/AIDS."

Corinthia Bostic, Peer Educator

Growing up in Raleigh, NC, my family kept me sheltered from the problems of the world and especially the world of sex.  My mother was four decades older than me and my father was six decades older than me.  This significant age difference made sex conversations nonexistent in my home.

 

When I was 5 years old, my mother died of cancer and when I was 9 years old my father died of a stoke.  Following my father’s death, I was adopted by a close family friend.  Her age and values were similar to those of my parents, particularly the value of refraining from conversations related to sex. 

 

Since sex conversations were taboo in my home, I like many of my peers received sex education from my friends who knew as much as I did, “nothing”.  Our conversations throughout elementary school and part of middle and high school were like the blind leading the blind.  The conversations were filled with false information and debates about condom use and misuse.  Unfortunately, when I transitioned to college, I still found myself in far too many conversations with my friends (both male and female) that included false information related to safer sex.  Fortunately, while attending Virginia Union University, I have been educated about safer sex and received valuable HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness training that allows me to be the person to correct my friends and give them accurate information regarding prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and/or HIV/AIDS.

Since I speak about safer sex and prevention, I also practice what I preach on a daily basis. Being a Peer Educator has been a lifestyle change for me! At least once a week, I get stopped on campus by a student and they simply say “thank you” and want to know when another session will be held, I provide them with the date, time, and location and as I walk away, I am all smiles.  I think to myself, I know my parents are looking down and smiling at the work that I am doing.

Michelle Delores Morgan, Founder, Morgan's Leaning Center

 

Michelle Delores Morgan is the founder of Morgan's Learning Center (MLC), which mobilizes Black American communities and provides resources to AIDS services in Prince George's County (PGC) in Maryland. MLC works with several local organizations with a direct response to PGC’s high HIV/AIDS prevalence and incidence rates. My motto is "Be educated. Be healthy. And LIVE, passionately!" Awareness creation ranges from volunteering to conduct safety meetings at Pepco Holdings, Inc., to organizing an open house in my Southeast, Washington, DC apartment building to promote prevention and education around HIV using gift bags and posters.

 

I also refer people to PGC HIV testing sites, drug treatment centers and food banks, and provide education and prevention contacts offered to PGC residents. I believe that everyone is unique, and everyone’s perception is different. Reaching all people exactly from where they are concerning awareness in HIV is the key to community mobilization, one community at a time.

 

My training experience includes the following: Black AIDS Institute Community Mobilization College Student Fellow Graduate 2008; Certified OraQuick Advance Tester, OraSure Technologies, Inc 2008; Trained HIV Names Reporting Tester, Department of Health AIDS Administration 2008; Certified African American HIV Education and Prevention Instructor, American Red Cross Authorized 2007; CPR Trained and Certified 2008. Since 2006, I have volunteered at the Reid Temple AME Church, as the Pathway to Life HIV/AIDS Ministry Secretary and with Pepco Holdings, Inc., as a Diversity Department Participant. I have been with Whitman-Walker Clinic, as a National HIV Testing Day and Food Bank Volunteer, since 2005.

Rev. Vanessa D. Sharp, M.Div., and Concentration in Ecumenics, Urban Evangelism and Missiology and Master of Arts in Church Music

Sharp on the ministerial staff of Higher Hope Christian Ministries in SW Atlanta and is a strong advocate for HIV/AIDS issues and Health and Wholistic Wellness concerns. She is a leader and servant of people: locally - AIDS Ecumenical Coalition, AIDS Alliance, SisterLove, Inc., Sista Sol, Inc. and the Speakers Bureau of AID Atlanta, HOPWA of Atlanta, Ryan White Planning Council of Atlanta; nationally - PHEWA Executive Board for PAN Network Leadership Team; worldwide she is Consultant for ChangeOneLife, Inc.’s medical ministry in Kenya, East Africa and represented the USA in Indonesia for the World Council of Churches for World Peace 2008. She recently founded Love In the Name of Christ (LINC) Worldwide Outreach and LINC, Inc., (Love Integrates Nurture & Care) a “Girls to Womanhood Initiative” HIV & AIDS Peer Education and Awareness program in partnership with Shoot The Hoop, Inc. an Academic Excellence, all 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations. A graduate at the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) (2008), Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary in Atlanta, GA (2008) and Dallas Christian College in Texas (2001), Rev. Sharp was diagnosed with the HIV virus 19 years ago and began her wholistic healing through advocacy in 1997, breaking her silence. She is a mother of 4 adult’s children and has 2 grandchildren.