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Main Forums => AIDS Activism => Topic started by: leatherman on January 19, 2011, 01:48:03 pm

Title: SC Rally to Restore Funding for ADAP - Feb 9, 2011
Post by: leatherman on January 19, 2011, 01:48:03 pm
SHARP* Report Release & Rally to Restore Funding
For ADAP and HIV Prevention in South Carolina


With South Carolina ranked 11th in highest new HIV infection rate in the nation, the South Carolina HIV/AIDS Care Crisis Task Force (SCHACCTF) is announcing the release of it's 2011 Action Plan to combat HIV in South Carolina. A team from Harvard has helped research and prepare short, mid, and long range plans designed with collaboration from colleagues across the state to educate the legislature, administration, governmental entities, and the public about the long-term challenges facing South Carolinians related to HIV disease. This important new SHARP* report will be released on February 9, 2011 at a media conference to be held at the State House, in Columbia, followed with a rally to save ADAP (AIDS Drug Assistance Program) by asking the legislature to properly fund this important program in our state.                     

Wednesday, February 9, 2011
10:00 am (promptly) - 12:30 pm

ARRIVE: 9:30 a.m. with photo ID
Press Conference: South Carolina State House Rotunda
Rally: Immediately following the Press Conference
Attire: Wear your red!
Speakers to be announced
Sponsored by: SCHACCTF
For more information, call (803) 254-6644

Your Voice Matters!
Don't Let Your Voice Be Silenced!


I encourage my fellow South Carolinians to join me on the 9th! ;D
Let me know if you'll be attending and we'll meet up for our own mini-AMG ;)

*State Healthcare Access Research Project by Harvard Law School
Title: Re: SC Rally to Restore Funding for ADAP - Feb 9, 2011
Post by: leatherman on January 26, 2011, 07:49:40 pm
*Bump*
Just a quick reminder that an SC ADAP Funding Rally is in two weeks.
Meet me there - I'm bringing Lemon Bars :-*!
Title: Re: SC Rally to Restore Funding for ADAP - Feb 9, 2011
Post by: icuspeak on January 30, 2011, 07:38:05 pm
I believe that I will come to this rally. My husband was diagnoised in 2009. I am still negative but I want to do everything I can for him. He recieved a letter from ADAP a few weeks ago that told him he no longer qualified for the program. We can not afford his HIV meds so I don't know what we will do now. I live near Greenville SC. I know how to get to Columbia but I have no clue where to go once I get there. Can you send me directions? Please send a personal message to me through the forums. Thank you, Tina
Title: Re: SC Rally to Restore Funding for ADAP - Feb 9, 2011
Post by: leatherman on January 30, 2011, 08:29:41 pm
I believe that I will come to this rally. My husband was diagnoised in 2009. I am still negative but I want to do everything I can for him. He recieved a letter from ADAP a few weeks ago that told him he no longer qualified for the program. We can not afford his HIV meds so I don't know what we will do now. I live near Greenville SC.
Hi Tina!
I'm sorry to hear about your ADAP problems, well your husband's problems, but I'm glad to hear that you would like to attend the Rally and try to make a difference. I have copied your email and phone number and will get in touch with you. (However, I would suggest that you modify your last post and remove that sensitive contact information. These forums are indexed by google, and that data will be made just way too public.)


edited to add:
Tina, I have sent you an email first off discussing the matter of most importance - and that is getting your husband access to meds. I have listed several options that y'all can check into depending on the circumstances. Then I gave you some directions and a map to get down to the rally. Get back to me on the questions I posed and we'll see what we can do to make sure your hubby has meds. Then we'll make arrangments to meet up at the rally and have some lemon bars!
Title: Re: SC Rally to Restore Funding for ADAP - Feb 9, 2011
Post by: David Evans on January 30, 2011, 11:25:18 pm
Hi Tina,

I modified your original post and removed your email address and telephone number. Even though these forums require people to apply for memberships in order to post messages and interact with other members, they are not private at all. Anyone searching online could potentially find this information.

Regards and good luck,
David
Moderator
Title: Re: SC Rally to Restore Funding for ADAP - Feb 9, 2011
Post by: icuspeak on January 31, 2011, 09:45:05 pm
Thank you so much. I'm new at this but now I know not to do it again
Title: Re: SC Rally to Restore Funding for ADAP - Feb 9, 2011
Post by: leatherman on February 01, 2011, 10:09:53 pm
*bump*
The "SC Rally to Restore Funding for ADAP" is one week away!
Mark it on your calendar and make plans to attend
2/9/11 10:00am - 12:30pm

The Rally and Press Conference, with the release of the S.H.A.R.P. Report (State Healthcare Access Research Project), are sponsored by the SC HIV/AIDS Crisis Care Task Force (SCHACCTF) in conjunction with SC Legislators, SC Hospital Association, Columbia City Council, Richland County Government, Sumter County Council,Advocates for Youth, H.O.P.E. Chaplaincy & USC Lutheran Center, SC Physicians, People Living with HIV/AIDS, Wilmer Hale Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School, and Treatment Access Expansion Project.

It seems that we're holding this rally and releasing this report (detailing HIV/AIDS related issues within our state and possible solutions to some of these issues) just in time. Since there was enough of an outcry last year (SCHACCTF held two rallies) that the legislature did not totally defund HIV prevention programs and the ADAP program, they are trying something new this year. A bill (S.434) has been proposed that would require the use of ONLY generic drugs to treat HIV/AIDS with state funds. While that sounds like a good economical solution, the problem with that is that only AZT and ddI have generic versions available in America. Just like many of us have had to learn about our immune systems, HIV, and the meds, we will have to try to educate our legislators to understand that treating people with generic AZT monotherapy is not the proper way to treat our HIV positive citizens.
Title: Re: SC Rally to Restore Funding for ADAP - Feb 9, 2011
Post by: leatherman on February 07, 2011, 01:43:02 pm
*bump*
Mark it on your calendar and make your plans!

The SC ADAP rally this week (Wed 2/9/11) will start with a press conference in the Rotunda of the State House promptly at 10:00am, immediately followed by a rally on the steps outside the capital bldg until 12:30pm.

I hope to meet up with some of my AM friends who have said they might be able to attend. It'll be our own little SC "AMG". LOL Don't forget, I'm baking up a fresh batch of lemon bars :-* tomorrow to tempt you into coming and joining the cause to demand that our legislators fully fund SC ADAP.
Title: Re: SC Rally to Restore Funding for ADAP - Feb 9, 2011
Post by: leatherman on February 10, 2011, 01:32:33 am
I want to thank everyone that was with us in spirit at the Rally/Press Conference today. We know you were thinking about us, and we were thinking of you - especially as we were eating up your share of the "AIDS cookies", oops! "Positive Cookies" and "LemonAIDS bars" :D ;D
(http://reigningpages.com/leatherman/2011/february/ccc/rally/rally00.jpg)
The event went very well. There was a crowd of 300+ in the Rotunda for nearly 50 minutes, before going to the Senate and House to talk to Legislators or attending a reception in the church next to the State House.
(http://reigningpages.com/leatherman/2011/february/ccc/rally/rally03.gif)
We had a Senator and two Representatives (who support our cause) speak for a few minutes each, along with a Columbia SC City Councilwoman, a Sumter County Councilman, and a Richland County Councilman. The Exec VP of the SC Hospital Assoc, the Exec Director of the National Alliance of Mental Illness SC, the Exec Director of the SC HIV/AIDS Crisis Care Task Force all spoke. (w00t for Bambi the task force director! It was the Task Force, of which I am a member, that sponsored and put together this event). A lady from POSITIVE Voices told her story and a youth activist from Advocates for Youth gave a few words too.
(http://reigningpages.com/leatherman/2011/february/ccc/rally/rally19.jpg)
The most moving speaker of the event was the Rev. Frank Anderson. He related his own personal experiences with a relative who had HIV (and passed away) to the community needing to care for their own. With modern medications, competent health care workers, dedicated social workers, and eager activists the only things truly missing are government support and funding.
(http://reigningpages.com/leatherman/2011/february/ccc/rally/rally20b.jpg)
After the Press Conference, the Catawba Care Crew gathered to discuss our next move. We could go back home, we could attend the scheduled reception and network with other activists, or we could go upstairs to the main lobby between the House and Senate Chambers and actually speak with some of our legislators.

I'm very pleased to say that our group chose correctly and went upstairs to meet with our legislators and speak with them about the ADAP issue. We were able to send in a request and call them out of the House Chamber to meet with us for a few minutes. Since Catawba Care's director usually does the lion's share of the work, she asked for others than herself to talk, so I jumped right in when our Representatives came out.

The first Representative out to see us is newly elected and still learning the ropes of working in the legislature. He was very responsive and funny. Hopefully he'll remember us as one of the first groups to visit him. After I gave a quick spiel and mentioned how I had used ADAP up in Ohio (and was still here because I had help getting meds all those yrs ago!), the Rep laughed and said it sounded like I knew all the right buttons to push. Let's see: I talked about how much to spend, how much we'd save, how people could still be employed and productive citizens paying taxes, and rounded it off with a good sob story about how my life was saved by this same program. Yeppers, I had these talking points down pat. LOL
   
Another Rep we spoke with knew about ADAP and the funding issues; but didn't realize until I explained, that ADAP fills in the gap for many of the working, tax-paying poor. (I read my talkin' point sheet real good, I tell ya!) The other Representative also knew about ADAP; but didn't want to spend much time talking to us about such things - although he had some promising news of $130 million dollars that needs to be divided up and that a portion of that could very well go into the ADAP and Medicaid programs.
   
Altogether, I thought the rally/press conference went well, and felt very proud of our activist/lobbying efforts. Of course, I'm going to follow up these personal interactions with emails tomorrow thanking these Legislators for taking the time to see us. I think too that these meetings will help as I work on the letter writing campaign (http://reigningpages.com/schiv_campaign) as now I have a sense of who we'll be writing and sending letters to throughout the year.
(http://reigningpages.com/leatherman/2011/february/ccc/rally/rally22.jpg)
WooHoo! Some of the Catawba Care Crew made it onto TV! Columbia SC TV Channel 10, WISTV, has a clip about the rally (http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=14001003). If you pay close attention around 1:20, you'll see us in the blurry background. That's little ol' leatherman with his sunglasses on his head over there on the far left!