Becoming more spiritual will not cure a person of HIV/AIDS, but it can help people with the disease find comfort in learning to live with the pain. In fact, a spiritual approach to HIV/AIDS can help the infected as well as the affected in many ways, said Marc Cohen, president of the United Foundation for AIDS. This is
Despite a federal endorsement of South Florida s fight against AIDS, discussing the epidemic from the pulpit is still taboo among the region s most Orthodox Jewish, Christian and Islamic congregations. For many of them, AIDS is a disease that happens outside of their community -- to gays, drug users, the homeless.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Harry Desir feels as if he s been caught in a nightmare. He runs and runs, but can t get out. Every time he opens his eyes, he finds himself in the middle of the poverty and chaos of Haiti, and he says he doesn t belong here. Although he s a Haitian citizen, he believes he belongs in the
As the AIDS epidemic swelled to epic proportions last decade, an entire industry flourished based on the concept of helping dying patients live out their final days. The viatical industry gave money to terminally ill patients in exchange for what often was their last remaining asset: a life insurance policy. In as few
With the fervor of a church revival and the determination of a manhunt, more than 400 people dedicated themselves Saturday to stopping a killer, AIDS, that is striking hard in Florida s black communities. Their pledge at the South Florida HIV/AIDS Town Hall Meeting emerges at the same time elected leaders are mobilizin
In a gathering without precedent in South Florida, hundreds of voices will be lifted Saturday against a killer, AIDS, during a town hall meeting that will serve as a model for similar campaigns across the nation. It will be one part education forum, one part battle rally, aimed at the region s black communities, which
They are the moments that define a lifetime. The letter conveying news of victory or defeat. The phone call trumpeting tidings of great joy or unspeakable sorrow. George Roberts has weathered more calls of sorrow than any three humans should have to endure. Three times, the phone has clanged from Miami with the sound o
That s the day AIDS sucked the life out of 5-year-old Darrious Nanton s mother. That s the day Darrious father, Ronnie Nanton, then 38 and already the breadwinner, became the sole caretaker of his son, who also had fallen victim to the HIV virus, which had started to compromise his immune system. That was the day that
A growing number of teens in South Florida and across the nation are staying celibate, reversing a 40-year trend of rising sexual activity among U.S. high school students, according to newly released federal data. Teen sex is declining across the nation in the late 1990s after increasing steadily every decade since the
With the fervor of a church revival and the determination of a manhunt, more than 400 people dedicated themselves Saturday to stopping a killer, AIDS, that is striking hard in Florida s black communities. Their pledge at the South Florida HIV/AIDS Town Hall Meeting emerges at the same time elected leaders are mobilizin
Sophia Heslop hates needles. For years, that kept her from having an HIV test -- until Monday. The 32-year-old Sunrise woman said she was picking up pamphlets on teens and HIV to pass out at her church when a Broward County Health Department employee convinced her to take the test -- pain free. Heslop was given an oral
In Liberty City, rap and R&B artists will spread the message. In Little Havana, South Beach and Hallandale, outreach workers will do the same -- encouraging South Floridians to take the test to learn their HIV status. Starting today, health workers are going into different communities offering free HIV tests and do
Several Plantation seniors will soon add their voices to a national discussion on HIV and the elderly. A producer from Good Morning, America gathered commentary Thursday morning during a community meeting at the city s Police Outreach Center at the Broward Mall. Ricki Goldberg, a GMA producer, spent two hours taping he
The federal government is sending a crisis-response team to Miami and two other U.S. cities later this month to examine the spread of AIDS and HIV in people of color, especially among African Americans. The team of experts from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will assess what has been done in each of t
Andrea Robinson and Stephen Smith - Herald Staff Writers
On a hot, sticky Friday night, while most people are preparing for the weekend, Eugene Snell and Patricia Joseph are getting ready for a night on Liberty City s Northwest 17th Avenue. They are part of the MOVERS street outreach team, one of several that scour some of the hardest-hit neighborhoods and prisons in South F
Tamonlyn Hodge was still abusing cocaine and alcohol and having unprotected sex when her cousin died of AIDS complications in 1992. She knew that her cousin s friends had shunned him because of the disease, which he contracted from unprotected sex, relatives said. It killed his will to live. He gave up, said he d rathe
Andrea Rosinson and Stephen Smith, Herald Staff Writers
I know my purpose is to educate people with the virus about the services available to them -- restoring dignity in their lives. People can live a good life with the virus. Deborah Griffin Two brothers. Dead. One sister. Dead. Mother and stepfather. Infected. Surviving. This is what AIDS has done to Deborah Griffin s f
Talk to me. So you can see. What s going on. -- Marvin Gaye I used to have an uncle who was gay. Died years ago when I was a kid. To this day, I don t know much about him. His name was seldom mentioned when the family gathered -- much less the fact that he was, you know . . . like that. To some of my elders, my uncle s
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