![]() | |||||||||||||||
Transition to HopeBy Gary Bell July 1, 2009 My name is Gary J. Bell and I am the executive director of BEBASHI (Blacks Educating Blacks About Sexual Health). Founded in 1985, BEBASHI was the country's first AIDS services organization targeting urban minority communities. We offer a continuum of HIV/AIDS/STI prevention and direct care services primarily in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. I have been working in the HIV/AIDS arena since 1987. At that time, I worked for another non profit, Episcopal Community Services (ECS). ECS is a large, old, traditional multipurpose organization that has been serving those in need for over a century. In 1987, we were approached by the City of Philadelphia, who had begun developing HIV/AIDS programming and wanted ECS to be a community partner. At the time, most of my experience had been with homebound people, mostly elderly or disabled. However, it was during my time at ECS that the HIV/AIDS crisis really grabbed me and hasn't let go. In 1987, I believed, as many did, that HIV was a gay white disease. However, my first client was a middle-aged African-American mother of six children, living in a housing project. When I walked into her bedroom, she was surrounded by several family members, all looking alarmed with concern. She looked weak and ashen. She had just received her AZT [Retrovir] treatment, the only anti-HIV drug available at the time. Back then, AZT was given in much higher, more toxic doses and patients were often quite ill for several day afterwards. To say that I was shocked to see this black family struggling to make sense of this frightening illness was an understatement. But for me, came the grim realization that HIV was not a gay white disease and that as it migrated to women and families that the emotional toll would be extensive. During my tenure at ECS, we significantly expanded our services, adding case management; home delivered meals and a food cupboard: therapeutic counseling and a unique program called STAAR that offered counseling and support to children whose parents where infected with HIV, many of whom were already orphaned. There were other experiences that solidified my commitment to working in the HIV/AIDS arena: sharing tears with a dying mother who struggled to determine a permanent placement for her son after she died; or consoling a despondent, suicidal child who was being teased in his neighborhood because his mother has HIV. In 1996, I was directed to BEBASHI to continue my work in HIV/AIDS, where I have been for the last 14 years. My story, like the history of HIV/AIDS, is still being written. Stay tuned... To contact Gary, click here.
Add Your Comment:
(Please note: Your name and comment will be public, and may even show up in
Internet search results. Be careful when providing personal information! Before adding your comment, please read TheBody.com's Comment Policy.) |
BLOG:
Transition to Hope This year marks Bell's 14th as the executive director of the Philadelphia-based BEBASHI (Blacks Educating Blacks About Sexual Health), founded in 1985 as the nation's first AIDS organization serving African Americans with HIV. Bell has been widely praised, not only for increasing funding and accountability at a time when HIV donations have plummeted, but also for launching such innovative programs as a women's initiative, prison-discharge planning, and, most recently, a diabetes intervention. More About Gary: Profile Subscribe to Gary's Blog:
Recent Posts:
May 16, 2014 - Thank You, Mr. Sterling: A Blog Entry by Gary Bell
May 2, 2014 - Ignorance Is Bliss (Not!): A Blog Entry by Gary Bell June 18, 2013 - Were Michael Douglas' Comments About HPV Helpful? A Blog Entry by Gary Bell May 16, 2013 - HPV Vaccination -- A Wasted Resource for African Americans? A Blog Entry by Gary Bell February 1, 2013 - The Opioid Solution and HIV: From the Frying Pan Into the Fire -- A Blog Entry by Dave R. A Brief Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by TheBody.com's bloggers are entirely their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of TheBody.com itself. |
|
|||||||||||||