National Minority AIDS Council Building Healthier Communities

January 27, 2010

 NMAC Calls on Country to Honor the Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Supporting Relief Efforts, People Living with HIV/AIDS in Haiti

This article has been updated with new information as of January 27, 2010.

January 21 ~ Washington, DC ~ This week, we honored the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr., who fought tirelessly for the civil rights and once described the U.S. as a country in which “everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.” The National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) calls on that greatness in everyone to support the relief efforts in Haiti taking place in the wake of the devastating earthquake of January 12^th.  

Paul A. Kawata, NMAC’s Executive Director, says: “We are extremely concerned about the situation in Haiti, where over 80% of the population lived in poverty before the recent tragedy. It is feared that the country’s 120,000 people living with HIV/AIDS have little or no access to shelter and food, as well as HIV/AIDS medications, primary care and other services.”

“The urgency in getting resources to those working on the frontlines of this disaster cannot be overstated,” says Ravinia Hayes-Cozier, NMAC’s Director of Government Relations and Public Policy. “The civil unrest and violence following the earthquake in Haiti has undermined the country’s overall public health, and set the stage for the spread of infectious diseases, like HIV.”

The best way to support the Haitian relief effort, including the agencies that work on the frontlines of the HIV/AIDS effort there, is through financial donations to organizations such as the following:

• Clinton Bush Haiti Fund

• GHEKSIO (The oldest HIV care and treatment center in this hemisphere, GHEKSIO is based in Port-au-Prince, an area impacted most seriously by the earthquake.

• American Red Cross

• UNICEF

• Partners in Health
  

• Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières  

• Housing Works

• Yéle Haiti

• Health through Walls
• Center for International Disaster Information  
• Concern Worldwide 
• MercyCorps

Donations to www.earthquakeorphans.com will help We Can Build an Orphanage, which provides a home to 13 children affected by AIDS. Though all of the children survived the earthquake, their house was destroyed, along with many other buildings in the city of Jacmel. 

You also may send donations of unexpired antiretrovirals, antibiotics and prophylaxis medications (preferably in sealed bottles) to AID FOR AIDS International * 120 Wall Street, 26 Floor * New York, N.Y. 10005.  Otherwise, click here for a list of AID for AIDS drop-off points in New York City and other cities throughout the U.S.

About NMAC

The (NMAC) has advanced its mission, “to develop leadership within communities of color to address the challenges of HIV/AIDS” since 1987 through individualized capacity building assistance; technical assistance trainings; public policy education programs; national and regional conferences; treatment and research education programs; online and printed resource materials; and a website: www.nmac.org. The agency also serves as a membership association for its constituent AIDS service organizations and minority faith- and community-based organizations delivering HIV/AIDS services in communities of color and advocates on their behalf in Washington, D.C. NMAC's advocacy efforts are funded through private funders and donors only.

 

For more information, please contact NMAC directly at (202) 483-NMAC (6622) ext. 309 or communications@nmac.org. You may find us online at www.nmac.org as well as on Facebook.com, Wikipedia.com, Twitter.com, MyPhotoAlbum.com and YouTube.com.