Day 6- March 25th

In the morning, we visited Gilead Pharmaceuticals, which was located outside of San Francisco- the farthest we'd been out of San Francisco all week! Gilead is a pharmaceutical company that produces drugs, and many of their drugs are for HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis B. We were given presentations about Gilead's drugs and its efforts to reduce cost to reach the maximum amount of people with their drugs (Atripla, Truvada, etc.). It was interesting to see how Gilead, as a pharmaceutical company, worked both to proliferate its drug in the HIV/AIDS community, as over 60% of HIV/AIDS patients apparently use a drug created by Gilead. Learning about their efforts around the globe also allowed our group to see how the company was working to help the issue of HIV/AIDS, especially in areas of low-income and education. Our group was given a tour of some of the chemical and biological labs at Gilead, and it was interesting to see the scientific perspective of dealing with HIV and AIDS. As a smaller pharmaceutical company compared to Merck and GSK, our group noticed distinctions in the structures of the companies and perceptions of how drug companies maintained "profitable"- the entire experience allowed us to see everything from the commonly "vilified" drug company's point of view.
We then attended a policy panel at the Center for AIDS Prevention located at a UCSF branch. Meeting with different people involved at the Center for AIDS Prevention really showed us how the work being done in the field of HIV/AIDS is so broad. We heard from one woman who had researched the "ballroom" communities and how they dealt with HIV/AIDS, along with sexual health and community. We also heard from a worker from the San Francisco Department of Public Health, who talked about his work in the HIV/AIDS field. Lastly, we learned about WORLD (Women Organized to Respond to Life Threatening Disease), and the efforts to help women dealing with HIV.
Later, we visited the office of Bay Area Young Positives, where we learned about the "actual harm" of various sexual acts by organizing them into a line of increasing "ability to transmit HIV/AIDS". While there, we also made condom packets that we would later pass out during our outreach at The Crib.
We then visited the STOP AIDS Project, where we were instructed on how to fill out special surveys for the organization that would help them assess different needs in the community, especially in the Castro. After we had some basic instruction, we were placed in different stretches of the Castro where we worked to interview people for our surveys, as well as passed out condoms to promote sexual health. While there were definitely some instances of chilly and cold responses, most of the people in the Castro were extremely responsive and friendly- something that I definitely had not expected. This was definitely one of the highlights of our week, as we were able to do some hands-on volunteering work in the community regarding HIV and AIDS.
After our work in the Castro, we worked again with Bay Young Positives at The Crib, an 18+ club in San Francisco that has a large gay and bisexual demographic. We worked also by having people fill out surveys about their own sexual and drug health, as well as handed out the condom packets that we had packed earlier in the day. It was fun being able to meet people who were attending the club, and people were actually friendly and willing to fill out the survey- especially if you caught them while they were just coming in or waiting in line for the bathroom. Comparing the two demographics of the Castro and The Crib was interesting, as the two communities had very different targeted age ranges, but we were doing mostly the same type of work for both.

Jonathan Hsieh

Day 4- March 23

Today, we visited the SF AIDS Foundation, an organization based in San Francisco that assists those currently living with HIV and AIDS, while also working to prevent new infections of HIV and AIDS. We were able to learn about one of their main programs, the HIV Prevention Project, through one of coordinators, Mimi. Mimi provided our group with a great background about the HIV Prevention Project, telling us about injection-drug users in the community and how they are working to lower transmissions of HIV/AIDS in San Francisco by providing a clean needle exchange program. Mimi actually showed us some of the materials that they pass out to prevent the spread of HIV, including different types of needles, tourniquets, clean water, vitamin C, and much more. We learned that the SF AIDS Foundation actually works in a number of different areas, going directly to different communities like the Haight and the Tenderloin to reach their clients, as their belief is that they can better extend their services to a greater amount of people in that manner. After her talk, she took our group to one of their actual needle-exchange centers where we learned more about the needle-exchange program, as well as saw firsthand how the needle exchange program works. Mimi and the other workers at the needle exchanged all espoused a "harm-reduction" philosophy- a mindset where they will meet at-risk people where they are, and try to keep them as safe as possible from the epidemic. Seeing the community and the needle exchange was a very eye-opening experience for most in our group, and we were able to better see the work that the SF AIDS Foundation is taking in their community.
After our tour of their nearby needle-exchange program, we were given talks by one of the directors of the SF AIDS Foundation, as well as one of the leaders of Black Brothers Esteem, a group that promotes sexual health and well-being of the African-American gay and bisexual community. We learned about the national HIV/AIDS hotline run by the SF AIDS Foundation and learned about the many different programs offered by the SF AIDS Foundation.
When we were finished with our visit to the Foundation, we had some free time to explore San Francisco until evening. Some members of our ASB group decided to explore Union Square, Chinatown, and the Castro. In our visit to the Castro, it was the first experience for some of the group to the area, and we were able to see the interesting dynamics existing in the Castro area. We visited "Under One Roof", a store in the Castro run by volunteers, in which all of the proceeds go back towards HIV and AIDS related organizations in San Francisco. It was great for us to be able to see a different factor in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and we noticed that "Under One Roof" supported many of the organizations that we had already visited and some of the ones that we were planning to visit later in the week.

Jonathan Hsieh