“Will I lose my dignity? Will someone care? Will I wake tomorrow, from this nightmare?” – RENT
These words from Johnathan Larson’s musical about a year in the life of a bohemian group of friends, echoes the sentiments of those who have to face the emotional and physical complications of AIDS everyday.
December 1, 2009 marks the 21st anniversary of World AIDS Day. “Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise” is the World AIDS Campaign’s overarching theme from 2005-2010; encouraging individuals, organizations, and governments, to lead in the response to AIDS. The promises that they elude to are ones that leaders at every level have committed to. Most countries around the world now acknowledge the threat of AIDS and have committed to do something about it, but not all of them have followed through. Now it is the time to deliver. Promises must be kept and people must feel empowered to act.
One such organization that is keeping the promise is HIV Edmonton. They have just begun their 25th Anniversary campaign to celebrate the journey since their inception in 1984. The well known and respected community leader, Michael Phair, talks about the humble beginnings of HIV Edmonton.
“In Edmonton, the first person with AIDS (Olympic Swimmer, Ross Armstrong) was diagnosed on July 1st, 1984. On July 2nd the media found out and began to call, asking how the local gay community was responding to AIDS. I received such a call and told them that we were working on our response and would get back to them. I subsequently gathered a small group of five gay/lesbian people around my kitchen table, and over the next year we founded the AIDS Network of Edmonton - today HIV Edmonton.”
The adversities that this team met within the initial stages of the organization were many, says Phair. “Initially the challenges that we faced were educating gay men and others about safe sex while not endorsing ‘chastity’, and encouraging Edmontonians, and particularly the medical community, to treat AIDS as a serious illness and to respond with care and compassion.”
Phair, a five-term City Councillor, has consistently been a strong voice in many areas of the Edmonton’s GLBT community. At the kick-off event for HIV Edmonton’s 25th Anniversary Campaign on November 19th, Phair was celebrated, along with the concerned and proactive friends that joined him around his kitchen table. This further proves that big things can be accomplished with the dedication, passion and initiative of just a few people, and is one of the many reasons why volunteering is still so imperative to this organization.
Debra Jakubec, Executive Director of HIV Edmonton, is the first to champion the importance of their volunteers. “On World AIDS Day, our volunteers made over 7,000 red ribbons and distributed them to every Starbucks in the city – 63 stores. It blows my mind, the level of commitment that they have.”
Jakubec has been working for HIV Edmonton for 9 years and has been their Executive Director for over 3 of those years. “One of the biggest challenges has been dealing with a variety of different populations. Some people still think that HIV is a disease that only affects gay men or men who have sex with men but it also affects other populations too. One of the largest hurdles is to try to serve different groups of people, some who may have different needs.”
There are still many issues surrounding HIV that are misunderstood, and the need for education surrounding prevention and treatment is just as crucial today. “The facts that are most often misunderstood are that some people believe there is a cure for HIV and sometimes people think it is not a ‘big deal’ because there is treatment available, but treatment is not always as easy as people think,” says Jakubec.
“27% of Canadians who have HIV, don’t know it. We have resources here where you can get prevention information and our support workers can tell you where to get tested, and even go with you to get tested,” says Debra. One of their guiding principles is that everyone affected by HIV gets the services they need, without barriers or discrimination.
Jakubec was quick to applaud the contributions that Edmonton’s community has made to keep the agency alive and thriving, both in the past and present. The elements of their 25th Anniversary Campaign reflect their desire to pay tribute to the early heroes that came before us and to create a permanent monument to honour the legacy of the AIDS movement in Edmonton.
“Over the next fifteen months we will be holding a variety of events and projects to honour our early champions. We were started by the gay community, and carried by them for a long, long time. As we have been growing, the LBGTT community has been assisting us with a lot of the work we are doing, especially during this AIDS Awareness Week([November 23rd to December 1st). A few of the bars in town have hosted events and members of other LBGTT clubs and organizations have been coming out to events and supporting our work.”
A project for a Legacy Garden is being developed, so that Edmonton can have an AIDS memorial and a piece of public art to beautify a downtown space. There is also a coffee table book in the works, to commemorate the people behind the HIV and AIDS advocacy movement in Edmonton. It is sponsored by Alberta photographers Roth & Ramberg, and will feature both archived and new photographs of the key people of the movement. Planning is also underway for their Anniversary Gala in 2011.
This agency has been providing support, community education, advocacy, prevention and harm reduction education to the Edmonton community for over 23 years, and invites you to be involved in the huge journey of hope that began around a small kitchen table.
HIV Edmonton
www.hivedmonton.com
