For 2 clients, our E-Angels program has proven to make a world of difference in their lives.

First of all, E-Angels are you!  At CARES events or in our mailings, we always ask for your email address.  Then we ask if you would like sign to up for E-Angels.  From time to time there are often requests or needs of our clients that we here at CARES cannot fill.  We are funded for specific, HIV related items and not everything our clients need fall under that category.  That’s where you come in.  We send out an email “blast” to everyone who’s signed up and tell them something about the client and what they need.  For instance, this last time I had 2 clients who were starting over from scratch.  They had nothing but the clothes on their back.  We were able to help them obtain housing using HOPWA funds (via HUD) but then they had no beds or anything else.

Well, y’all came through and how!  Client one has a new mattress and bed frame thanks to a generous donation from an E-Angel, who said, you go buy it Pat and we’ll donate the cost.  He also received a great recliner. kitchen table and chairs and many various household items.  Even brand new towels that someone else brought in.  Client 2 received a couch that pulls out into a bed, getting him off the floor, another couch and love-seat to actually sit and again, numerous household items.

One person saw the posts and donated a commode, dresser, walker and household stuff.  This was put to good use by someone else altogether.

But let me share with you the greatest gift of all, the disbelief of these clients who often ask, “do they know I’m HIV Pat?”  Not I have HIV, but I am HIV.  I tell them yes and they marvel that someone would still want to give them these wonderful items, even knowing they are living with HIV.  Because in their eyes and in their world and experience, if you have HIV you don’t deserve the good.

So thank you to all of our lovely E-Angels, you are making a difference in someone’s life and it feels good!

Thursday, March 10 is National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.  This a nationwide event intended to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS and how it affects women and girls across the United States.  This year’s theme is “Women and Girls Taking Action in the Fight against AIDS.  What can YOU do?”

According to www.womenshealth.gov,  the website of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health and the lead organizer of this awareness day, a woman tests positive for HIV every 35 minutes in our country and over 280,000 American women are affected by this HIV/AIDS. 

Another statistic, according to the U. S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), “Women and girls of color – especially black women and girls – bear a disproportionately heavy burden of HIV infection.  In 2009, for adult and adolescent females, the rate of diagnoses of HIV infection for black females was nearly 20 times as high as the rate for white females and approximately 4 times as high as the rate for Hispanic/Latino females.”

What can you do? “Know Your Status – GET TESTED.”  Free, confidential HIV testing is available at CARES locations in Benton Harbor and Kalamazoo.