[Viva] Fwd: AP: March in D.C. Calls Attention to HIV and AIDS

[Denise Becker]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: March on Washington 2012 <c+ahf at trusted-sender.convio.net>
Date: Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 3:16 PM
Subject: AP: March in D.C. Calls Attention to HIV and AIDS
To: dbecker106 at gmail.com


    [image: Keep the Promise March IAC Header]

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March in DC Calls Attention to HIV and AIDS Ahead of International
Conference on the Disease

[image: Associated Press]

*July 22, 2012
*

WASHINGTON - More than 1,000 people marched through downtown Washington on
Sunday to call attention to the ongoing struggle against HIV and AIDS, the
subject of an international conference beginning held in the nation’s
capital.

[image: Keep the Promise March Goers]

Organizers said the aim of the “Keep the Promise” march was to remind world
leaders and policymakers that AIDS remains a threat to global health.
Marchers used red umbrellas to create a human red ribbon in advance of the
march. Some carried balloons in the shape of globes as they marched, and
others carried signs that read “Test & Treat Now” and “Yes We Can Control
AIDS.” The marchers stretched for more than a block, with bands and
cheerleaders among the group.

[image: March on Washington]



“The war against AIDS has not been won and now is not the time to retreat,”
said AIDS Healthcare Foundation president Michael Weinstein in an interview
Sunday.

[image: March on Washington]Weinstein’s Los Angeles-based group organized
the march, which began near the Washington Monument. He said that despite
financial hardships worldwide, the struggle against AIDS needs to keep
advancing. Weinstein’s organization called for the funding of programs that
fight AIDS and lower prices on AIDS drugs. They also are pressing for
universal access to condoms and increased rapid HIV testing.

Michael Green, who has been HIV-positive since he was 17, came from Tampa,
Fla., to join the march.
[image: MOW AIDS RIbbon]

“We need help with medications. We need help with housing. We need help
with a lot of things,” said Green, 40.

Mary Simmons of Norfolk, Va., who has been living with HIV for 23 years,
also came for the march.

“Before, I was ashamed of the disease, and I didn’t want anybody to know
that I had it. But now that I’ve had it this long I might as well just, you
know, let other people know that you don’t have to have it. You can prevent
having it by having safe sex,” said Simmons, 45.

The 2012 International AIDS Conference opened Sunday in Washington and runs
through Friday. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation has organized a march before
the biannual conference since 2002.

Comedian Margaret Cho, civil rights leader Al Sharpton, former United
Nations ambassador Andrew Young, and radio cohosts Tavis Smiley and Cornel
West spoke to the crowd before Sunday’s march. Musician Wyclef Jean also
performed.



'Keep the Promise' March and Rally Photo
Gallery<http://takeaction.aidshealth.org/site/R?i=cVnSmrn06rQY-axtKwFWWQ>
.

To read this story as published on the Washington Post website, please click
here <http://takeaction.aidshealth.org/site/R?i=i_QFQ0PpgV9HgpCW_NlfAA>.

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Click here to access the "Keep the Promise" March and Rally photo gallery.

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