Kaliedscope of Living

White House Office Hours: Combatting the Spread of HIV/AIDS Among Women and Girls

By Erin Lindsay (Cross-posted from White House Office Hours: Combatting the Spread of HIV/AIDS Among Women and Girls)

There are approximately 1.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States, including more than 290,000 women. Black and Hispanic women account for nearly three-quarters of new HIV infections among women. In July 2010, President Obama launched the first National HIV/AIDS Strategy to provide a coordinated national response to fight the epidemic.
Last week, as part of these ongoing efforts, President Obama issued a presidential memorandum establishing an inter-agency working group on the intersection of HIV/AIDS, violence against women and girls, and gender-related health disparities.
On Wednesday, the co-chairs of the working group, Lynn Rosenthal, the White House Advisor on Violence Against Women and Dr. Grant Colfax, the Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, will join us for a special session of office hours on Twitter to take your questions on the intersection of HIV/AIDS, violence against women, and gender-related health disparities and the importance of supporting continued research, mobilizing both the public- and private-sector, and engaging families and communities.
To learn more about the working group read the presidential memorandum and don’t forget to ask your questions during office hours on Wednesday.
Here are the details:

• Join us for Office Hours on Twitter at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 4th
• Ask your question on Twitter with the hashtag #WHChat
• Lynn Rosenthal, the White House Advisor on Violence Against Women and Dr. Grant Colfax, the Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, will respond to your questions in real-time via Twitter from @WHLive
• Follow the Q&A through the @WHLive Twitter account
• If you miss the live event, the full session will be posted on WhiteHouse.gov and Storify.com/WhiteHouse

We hope you can join us! Follow us on Twitter @WhiteHouseand @WHLive for the latest updates and more chances to engage.

Five Dear Colleague Letters in Support of HIV/AIDS

Representatives Nadler (D-NY), Waters (D-CA), Pascrell (D-NJ), and Lee (D-CA) and Delegate Norton (D-DC), submitted Dear Colleague letters addressing funding issues of importance to ending the AIDS epidemic to the House Labor, Health and Human Services Subcommittee on Appropriations on March 29th. Each letter detailed major domestic HIV spending needs and addressed the allocation of funding in the following areas:

• Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS (HOPWA)
• The Minority AIDS Initiative
• Labor-HHS, including The Ryan White Act and HIV Prevention and Surveillance
• Washington, D.C., Syringe Exchange, and
• Comprehensive sex education

Each of the letters was signed by between 32 and 67 Representatives with 108 different Representatives signing on to at least one letter. AIDS United appreciates the leadership taken to collect and submit the signatures and we thank every Representative who signed on.

Congress in Recess - Contact Your Representative!
Congress will be in recess for the next two weeks. Please consider taking this opportunity to schedule an appointment to meet with your Senators and Representatives while they are in town. To find out who your Representative is and to get her or his contact information, click here.

Additionally, many Senators and Representatives will be conducting town hall meetings while they are on recess. Here are just some of the town halls that we know of:

• 4/3 Sen. Merkley (D-OR) - Lost River Junior and Senior High School, Merrill, OR
• 4/10 Sen. Merkley (D-OR) - Milton-Freewater American Legion Hall, Milton-Freewater, OR
• 3/31 Rep. Buerkle (R-NY) - West Genesee Senior High School, Camillus, NY
• 4/1 Rep. Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-WI) - Hartland Village Hall, Hartland, WI
• 4/3 Rep. Black (R-TN) - White House Heritage High School Theater, White House, TN
• 4/3 Rep. Deutch (D-FL) - Coconut Creek Community Center, Coconut Creek, FL
• 4/3 Rep. Huelskamp (R-KS) - The Flying Monkey, Elkhart, KS
• 4/3 Rep. Murphy (R-PA) - Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall, Pittsburgh, PA
• 4/12 Rep. Black (R-TN) - Putnam County Courthouse, Cookeville, TN
• 5/15 Rep. Ross (D-AR) - Telephone Town Hall

If we learn of more, we will let you know! Contact your Representatives' and Senators' offices or check their websites to find out when they will be holding their next town hall. This is a great opportunity to meet with Members of Congress and express your concerns about HIV/AIDS issues, including whether or not there will be enough funding for prevention, treatment and research. We hope you will attend.