African-Americans are seven times more likely to contract HIV than Caucasians, and more than 9,168 Hoosiers currently live with the infection. It’s a disease that continues to marginalize the African-American community. Though African-Americans represent only 13 percent of the U.S. population, Blacks account for nearly half of HIV/AIDS patients.
To address the massive growth of this communicable disease in the minority community, the Indiana State Department of Health is sponsoring its 5th annual HIV statewide awareness program It’s Your Turn to Prevent HIV/AIDS: Individual Call to Action.
“We want people to get a stake in their own health and status,” Andrea Perez, communities of color program manager of the Indiana State Department of Health, said.
“The most important goal is for people to get tested.”
To aid ISDH in its overall purpose in sponsoring this event, guest speakers Marvelyn Brown and Joe Seabrooks, Ph.D., will speak candidly about the virus — a disease that is 100 percent preventable.
Brown, who got the virus at age 19 and now is 24, has dedicated her services to educating people from all walks of life about a disease she admits she knew little about. Like many, she felt it would never happen to her.
“I contracted HIV from a boyfriend that I trusted and I loved,” Brown said.
Brown chose not to look at her situation as a death sentence but the opportunity for her to share her story and help guide others to make better lifestyle choices.
“I see myself in so many of these young women, and this is something that I feel like is not out of my control,” Brown said. “It really goes back to self love and self worth, and I’m hoping that I can just touch people’s lives and I know that I have.”
Willing to share her personal story, as she has done and continues to do across the nation on Oprah, CNN’s Black in America and other national outlets, ISDH, hopes her message will touch and motivate attendees to act.
With a total of 210 HIV/AIDS deaths among Indiana residents last year, the health department is looking to tackle the root problem in the state. Currently, local Blacks only make up 8 percent of the population and account for nearly 35 percent of all Indiana residents with HIV disease.
This year Perez says ISDH was looking to reach a younger demographic of the minority population thus choosing Marvelyn Brown, an awareness advocate of HIV, and Joe Seabrooks, president of Metropolitan Community College of Blue River Kansas City, to appeal to the youth in the community.
“Last year Sheryl Lee Ralph performed and she did a wonderful job,” Perez said. “But we had decided this year to not so much focus on the name but on the substance and make sure we were providing a quality program and education for the audience.”
Seabrooks, will address the audience and pose the question if there is a correlation between the prevalence of HIV in the minority community and the prominence of hip-hop?
“I’ve been a fan of the genre of hip-hop music and I think there are some lessons that can be taught through that artistic form,” Seabrooks said. “I’m sharing with them my observations of hip-hop that may or may not contribute to the harsh realities of the rate that we are infected.”
During the awareness program, attendees will receive folders with information regarding testing sites and overall stats of the HIV/AIDS virus.
The program, born out of the disparity of the rapid rates at which the Black community is being infected, hopes to inspire people to be more accountable for thier actions.
“I think it’s very responsible for the state of Indiana to take a stand making sure it creates a platform for people to get the information and how it affects the lives and the longevity of our people,” Seabrooks said. The program is free and open to the public.
