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Fuesday, February 8,1994
The Battalion
Page 3
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Behind the scenes
workers devote
life to HIV battle
By Kyle Burnett
The Battalion
A IDS Awareness Week is into full
swing and the attention is mostly
focused on the disease and its
victims. During this week, as
throughout the year, little of the
limelight falls on the numerous
individuals who devote a great portion
of their life to fighting a seemingly
endless war.
Reasons they became involved
From career educators to part-time
volunteers, the motivation for becoming
active in the fight against HIV varies.
Mary Sue Rabe, a facilitator for
United Involved Community Action
Network (U & I CAN), was instrumental
in the advertising and coordination of
AIDS Awareness Week. She joined the
fight after the loss of a close friend to the
virus.
"I grew up in Bryan and I moved
away for 20 some odd years," Rabe said.
"A real good friend of mine died of
AIDS. The only medication he was
given was a painkiller, but it still was a
painful death. That is why I am such an
advocate. No one deserves to die that
way."
Genevieve Davis, Class of '93, has a
long history of volunteer work for
special causes. Davis is the volunteer
coordinator at Special Health Services,
which will contribute this week with
HIV testing and counseling.
"I heard about (Special Health
Services) from a friend," she said. "I
began as a volunteer and was later hired
full time."
Diane Santos, an HIV counselor with
Planned Parenthood, a local Awareness
Week sponsor, said she became involved
with the issue after years of employment
at the agency.
"I have worked with Planned
Parenthood for 14 years doing a lot of
different things," Santos said. "I find
this is an extremely important issue and
I love what I do."
Obstacles to overcome
In any issue you are going to run into
people who don't believe it is a problem,
said Stacey Garner, health educator at
A.P. Beutel Health Education Center.
And, Davis said, people not believing is
a huge problem.
"There is a lot of denial," Davis said.
"When you're in a small town, people
still have the image of AIDS being a big
city problem. But if you are sexually
active in a small town, and someone
there has AIDS, your chances of
contracting HIV is much greater."
Rabe said that some people believe
the problem exists, but it has nothing to
do with them.
"People believe 'This isn't relevant to
Kyle Burnett/THE Battalion
me/" she said. "That is not true. Look
at the crime rate, insurance and social
security. It is going to affect you."
Garner agreed with this but added
that college students don't believe they
could catch HIV.
"The biggest problems working with
college students is they do not believe
that they are at risk," she said. "But
they are finally beginning to listen. And
they are just beginning to change their
behavior."
Santos said that a college
environment plays host to an additional
problem.
"With college students, alcohol is the
big risk factor and the decision making
process begins to be altered," she said.
Another problem common to college
campuses is communication about
unprotected sex.
"What I see as being a big stumbling
block is it is a sexually transmitted
disease," Rabe said. "People do not
want to talk about it or they do not want
you talking to their kids about it. AIDS
is forcing us to talk about the things we
don't want to — sex and death.
Everybody is doing it but people just
won't to talk about."
But, Rabe said, HIV does not
discriminate. Its victims may be
homosexual, heterosexual, male or
female.
"Only in America has HIV been
viewed as a homosexual disease," she
said. "We have had a real hard time
changing people's thoughts about this.
It is running rampant in women and
they don't even know it."
Originally, the national Center for
Disease Control classified a T cell count
of 200 or under as full-blown AIDS.
Rabe said these standards were set up
for gay males and women don't always
meet those criteria because the disease
affects them differently. Cervical cancer
results from HIV and women die of that
long before AIDS takes over.
Often there are barriers to getting that
message across, though.
For example, Davis said political
pressure exists around education
programs.
"I think it is local a lot of times," she
said. "If there was a national
established program, it would override
the local authorities."
Rabe said political pressure exist
because of the delicate subject matter.
"No one wants to upset anyone," she
said.
See Trenches/Page 4
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OrWAress sarA. ;—-—;—
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50
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