By Staff
Event to promote understanding
By CLAUD HODGES
Senior Reporter
A local organization is putting its foot forward to increase awareness of HIV and show possible ways that might lead to the healing of AIDS among the area’s minority population.
The public is welcome to Consumer Day, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 5, to see how Metropolitan AME Zion Church is in the fight to conquer AIDS.
George Hill, a public health program consultant from the N.C. Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities, will be the Consumer Day’s guest speaker.
Metropolitan Community Health Services will provide free confidential HIV screening at this event.
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that attacks the immune system, making it difficult for the body to fight infection and disease. HIV is the same virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), which increases a person’s risk of developing certain cancers and infections. AIDS is the last and most severe stage of the HIV infection.
However, having HIV does not mean a person has AIDS. People who are being treated for HIV today are living longer than ever before with the help of drugs and the slow rate at which HIV infection progresses to AIDs, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Consumer Day will be held at the Metropolitan Community Health Services Center, 102 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Washington. A luncheon will be provided.
Metropolitan Community Health Services and the Washington-Plymouth Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta are sponsoring the event in commemoration of the Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS, according to the Rev. Melinda S. Moore.
The Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS is a week-long education and awareness campaign highlighting the role of the black church in addressing the AIDS crisis.
According to Moore, four educators will discuss topics about HIV and AIDS that are rarely discussed or known to the public.
The campaign serves to pave the way for the continuous delivery of prevention education and services to the black community via faith communities, according to Moore.
Consumer Day is supported by the Office of Minority Health and Human Services with funds appropriated by the N.C. General Assembly in memory of General Assembly members Bernard Allen, John Hall, Robert Holloman, Howard Hunter, Jeanne Lucas and William Martin.
According to the Office of Minority Health and Human Services, these six legislators were instrumental in the fight to fill the large gaps in the health status among the state’s minority population.