It's World AIDS Day. Again. And I find myself in the soup of emotions that comes with this day every year. Grateful. Relieved. Sad. Inspired. Frustrated. Proud. Resolved. And too many other things to list here. Grateful to be alive. Grateful for the extraordinary work, advocacy, research, solidarity, friendships and, well, just the ongoing commitment to keep going. Grateful for the awkward acknowledgements of this day from those who care enough to try by wishing me a "Happy World AIDS Day". In the early years, the mere thought that we were celebrating this day and the devastation of AIDS...
DawnAveritt's blog
Each day we make thousands of tiny decisions that impact our day, our week, our year, and maybe even our life.
In just a few days I will turn 50. Years. Old. I have to spell it out like that mostly because it’s hard to fully comprehend. I realize that I am not the first to feel this way. In fact, more and more of us (women living with HIV) are doing it. It’s nuts really. And awesome.
Thirty years ago today I was handed a death sentence. At least that is what an HIV diagnosis meant in 1988. In fact, it meant so much more than just death. It meant shame. It meant stigma. It meant judgement and isolation.
In many ways, one of our greatest success stories in the fight against HIV/AIDS to date has been our ability to reduce dramatically the rate of new HIV infections being passed from mother to child.
This is the final week of the #OperationGirl Charity Challenge and we're trying to raise as much money as possible for our organization to help us continue to provide access to life-saving and life-enhancing information and resources to millions of women and girls living with HIV around the globe. Please see my message below on how you can help us win an extra $5000 by obtaining the greatest number of individual donations (not dollars) between now and August 18th! To help us win this last Bonus Challenge, please Click Here and give what you can and consider sharing the link with your family...
June 28 is a day I’ll never forget: the anniversary of my HIV diagnosis. It was 1988. I was only 19, and didn’t know a single other HIV-positive woman. Misinformation and fear dominated the public conversation on AIDS; everyone knew AIDS was a death sentence, and my immediate goal was to stay alive long enough to see 20. Even my doctor told me to keep my status to myself. As a nation, we weren’t ready for conversations about AIDS that extended beyond stigma and assumptions. What amazing strides we have made since that day. In 1995 I took a leap of faith and went public with my HIV status. It...
I have young daughters – ages 6 and 8. So, I no longer have the luxury of simply brushing by them with my red ribbon and saying, “It’s World AIDS Day. This year the theme is Universal Access and Human Rights.” – and then waltzing away as though a conversation has been had. Nope. I now have to be able to “esplain and ascribe” (which is 6-year old for explain and describe), in plain English what World AIDS Day is (not to mention what Universal Access and Human Rights are) and why we care. Whoa. For those of you who do not have regular conversations with little people, I would encourage you to...
Today President Obama is releasing the long-anticipated National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS). Why is this a big deal? Well, for several reasons. First, we've never had one! That's right, the United States has never had a national AIDS strategy of our own, even though we require other countries that receive support from the US to fight AIDS to have one. Second, the process to develop a NHAS has been a monumental effort spearheaded by a coalition of AIDS activists and community-based organizations (with many of us in the community signing on) over the past several years (long before President Obama...
On March 10 th, those of us in the USA will observe National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. As a women living with AIDS, I experience a variety of emotions around “awareness days” like this. First, I’m glad we have our own day – it reminds me that I’m not alone and that the impact on women and girls is important enough for us to make a special day for the rest of society to take notice. On the other hand, that leaves a whole lot more days in the year that the issues I care a great deal about don’t make it to the main stage. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate being prompted to comment...