Empower Dominicans, Defeat HIV/AIDS

Last month, PBS Frontline broadcast a groundbreaking two-hour documentary called ENDGAME, AIDS in Black America. It kicked off with a speaker addressing a Baptist church gathering on World AIDS day about the disproportionate number of blacks with the disease.

“Today in America, 152 people will become infected with H.I.V. Half of them will be black…two-thirds of the new H.I.V. cases among women will be black…70 percent of the new H.I.V. cases among youth will be black.”

As the exploration showed, HIV/AIDS in America is in crisis but, thankfully, we have the education, federal funding and advocacy to confront the epidemic. What was a mysterious illness thought to only affect gay, white people was soon realized to spread among anybody – young or old, black or white, straight or gay, women or men.

But in the AIDS-ravaged poor country of the Dominican Republic, people are still widely uniformed about what it is, how it spreads and how to treat it. Competing health, social and economic problems take precedence leaving thousands of infected Dominicans undiagnosed and untreated to spread the disease indefinitely.

My documentary called “Empowering the Poor, Defeating AIDS in D.R”. focuses on students from the School of Public Health who journey to help several Batay families struggling to cope with the disease. They help build water filtration systems, build gardens, plant vegetables and educate communities while learning valuable skills in international politics, cultures and traditions.

Please spread the news that my documentary needs funding to be edited for air on PBS. I’m looking for underwriters and sponsors who share in the goals and objectives of this 25-minute health show that will feature local celebrity Benita Zahn as narrator and co-producer.

Please visit www.empowerthepoor.org and contact me if you’re interested in it’s future viewing.

Many thanks everyone ~