Day Three

So we began our day on Monday, early start as usual. We started by going to Project Inform. We had an orientation were we talked to the representatives at Project Inform about HIV/AIDS, its history from the time it began until now. They started in 1985 to educate the growing number of people with HIV at that time. They support their clients through their hot line which is mostly managed by a consistent pool of Volunteers and they also give clients information about support organizations available there. Here we divided into different small groups and began to volunteer. We called different AIDS organizations to update information, so that it is kept current for client use. It was really interesting to call these organizations and talk to them. Some people were definitely nice and positive but we did also get some mean people too. Our group members found it really interesting to be impostors and we had others calling in under the name "Robbie Williams" or in a British accent. That was very funny and thumbs up to you guys for keeping a fun atmosphere.

After Project Inform, we visited the AIDS Legal Reference Panel. This was a completely new and interesting experience. They brought to our notice how HIV is related to legal issues etc as they aid that most people do not consider that aspect as being part of advocating for this disease. The representatives we talked to were very knowledgeable about the issues involved. We talked for example about how insurance companies are taking away the Disability of people who have survived HIV for like ten years because they found them mowing their lawn, and therefore declared then capable of carrying out a day's work. So the legal panel presents these cases to court through attorneys who do this job for free. It was interesting to note their perspective on viewing HIV/AIDS as a chronic illness. This disease is viewed in this way so as to remove the stigma against HIV positive individuals....however, this creates problems with health insurance for the patients. The immigration issues they deal with involving HIV patients where interesting and they are really dedicated to helping people affected/infected by the disease.

After this we had a few hours of free time where group members went around different areas in San Francisco. I returned to Stanford with Crystal and do a few things on campus. The campus was way warmer than San Francisco, but we just grabbed some lunch and headed back.So we were a little late to the HIV planning council due to the heavy traffic. The HIV Council was really interesting though also quite confusing. I think most of the group felt marginalized and we did not really get much interaction with the members. So afterwards we headed back home to prepare dinner and hopefully get some rest. But as you can imagine, we probably "double movied" that is, watched more than one movie, the quote being courtesy of our trip leader who was advicing us to get some rest so as to power up for the next day. Well there were a lot of things planned for day Four........and so far so good.

Thanks guys :)
Tracy Makuvire