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Staff and volunteers commemorate EFA's 25 years of service at the 2010 Pridefest Parade in Saint Louis's Tower Grove neighborhood.
Twenty-Five Years of People Helping People
by Cheryl Roberts Oliver, Executive Director, Saint Louis Effort for AIDS
In the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, a group of dedicated volunteers in St. Louis realized that the individuals who were dying from it needed support and care. No one knew what to do about this disease. Everyone feared it.
However, the compassionate, courageous care of one group of people was profound. Working in a room over a bar, then later in the basement of a church, they funded their efforts by inviting friends into their homes for dinner and asking for donations. People dressed in drag and other events further supported their funding efforts. In 1985, they founded a small nonprofit agency, Saint Louis Effort for AIDS (EFA). The effort wasn’t to wage war or fight a disease. They wanted to help make it easier for people to both give help and get help.
Twenty-five years later, volunteers continue to provide support and encouragement at EFA for many reasons. Usually someone close to them was or is affected by HIV/AIDS. They want to do what they can to help EFA accomplish its mission of providing education on the prevention of HIV and comprehensive support services for those affected by the disease.
At EFA’s monthly staff meetings, staff members share success stories. The work the case managers and prevention team do is challenging, frustrating and heartbreaking. It helps the team to focus on the good that comes from testing, case management, community outreach, group work and PAWS (Pets Are Wonderful Support) program. Recently, a case manager shared this story.
My client is a quiet man who has always had a good job and been able to take care of himself and others. He was affected by the airline layoffs and instead of trying to find other employment, he tried to be loyal to his company and work a grueling schedule with horrible insurance that did not allow him to see a doctor and prevented him from receiving services. Eventually it left him destitute, very sick and unsure that life was worth living. He cut himself off from everyone, including healthcare and case management services.
Well, one day when he was very sad, he wrote a letter to his friend from “back in the day” and told him how he was feeling. And then he forgot that he even did that. Three days before foreclosure, he got a DVD of It’s a Wonderful Life and a check for $500 in the mail sent to him by his friend. It gave him just enough money to stave off the foreclosure for another month, the hope to reach out to his other friends for support and the courage to change his employment situation. After a while, he was able to get current on his mortgage and eventually made his way back to case management at EFA, medical care, and the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) to help him continue his journey.
One little act of kindness helped him turn his world around. It is a great reminder for all of us, because I do find that my clients who believe that they can do everything on their own are the ones that are in the greatest danger when times get hard. We all have to remember that we have each other during those times, because we are all helpers and we need to take his story to heart for our own health.
One act of generous kindness made a huge difference in this person’s life. This theme resonates in all the ways EFA and other AIDS service organizations assist in the community.
One unique program focuses not only on people, but pets. Once again, friends and volunteers recognized a need: people living with AIDS had to give up their pets because they could not afford to care for and feed them. PAWS (Pets Are Wonderful Support) has been a program of EFA since 2001. Pets were once considered a health threat to HIV-positive people with compromised immune systems.
With improved treatment for patients who are HIV-positive, pets provide documented health benefits for them, along with companionship, reduced stress and a sense of purpose. The cost of basic veterinary care and food for clients’ dogs and cats is funded by events, small grants and individual donations. Coordinated by an EFA staff member, PAWS is largely supported by volunteers. This support enables people living with HIV to keep their pets with them at a time when their companionship is so important.
More than 363 volunteers performed un-random acts of kindness for EFA and its clients in 2009. Just as it was 25 years ago, these people continue to help people and inform others about the importance of providing services and support. Knowledge and understanding of HIV/AIDS are the best ways to overcome its stigma and encourage people to learn their health status, get treatment and take care of themselves. If people are afraid of being labeled or discriminated against, they won’t get tested for HIV infection or other sexually transmitted diseases and won’t know if they are infected. As a result, they don’t access the health care and support services that are available, which puts them at much greater risk of getting AIDS. If they have HIV/AIDS and have unsafe sex, they will spread the disease. Then the cycle repeats itself.
The EFA vision is that individuals and communities are educated about HIV/AIDS and fully empowered to address this preventable disease without stigma, fear or hate. Stopping the cycle isn’t simple or easy, but it is possible. It can be done one test, one person in treatment, one person being helped by another, one act of kindness, at a time.
