Last night the PCAF kicked of it’s September AIDS Walk at Shakabrah on 6th Ave., and five of us were there.

We heard from the organizers of the AIDS Walk, PCAF staff and the director, and we learned that AIDS has become the leading killer of young black women. That’s terrifying. The AIDS Walk is a wonderful way to help educate people about HIV/AIDS (which is 100% preventable!), provide services that are so critical to the + community, and show people where our hearts are: “Guided by reason, informed by science, motivated by compassion.”

I encourage all members to join our team and walk with us, and if you can’t, donate any amount — even as little as $20 will help us on our way to our goal of $1,000 and recognition at the AIDS walk of our group.

If every member donates only $10, we will exceed that goal! Join our team and make a donation here.

An interesting side note: One of the organizers remembered us from last year, and asked if he could come to a Meetup! That was so exciting!

Here are some background figures on HIV/AIDS in Pierce County:

1,741 people with HIV/AIDS have come to the Pierce County AIDS Foundation for services, and 638 persons are known to have died from complications related to AIDS as of July 31, 2007.  Pierce County has the second highest incidence of AIDS in the State, with 9% of the total number of cases in Washington.

AIDS in Pierce County is distinguished from the state as a whole by a clientele which is poorer, has a lower average educational level and contains a higher percentage of women, people of color, injection drug users, teenagers, and children.  Statistics provided by the Tacoma/Pierce County Health Department and the Washington State Department of Health find:

• 35% of the cases of HIV/AIDS in Pierce County are among people of color.  That figure is only 28% for the state as a whole.
• 18% of the people with AIDS in Pierce County report injecting drug use as the mode of transmission of HIV as opposed to only 9% statewide. 18% percent of the people with AIDS in Pierce County report heterosexual sex as the mode of transmission of HIV as opposed to only 10% statewide.
• 20% of all Pierce County AIDS cases are women, a number twice the statewide percentage of AIDS cases among women.
• Teens are more at risk for HIV in Pierce County. 24% of the cases of AIDS are among young people 20-29 years of age. Taking into account a potential ten-year period where HIV has not yet progressed to full blown AIDS, it is logical to assume that most of these were infected as teens. That figure is only 21% for the state and for the nation.

Recent statistics show these trends in the AIDS epidemic in Pierce County even more strongly than the cumulative cases. Among the 88 new clients served at PCAF in 2005, 39% are from communities of color, 22% are women, and 14% report drug use as the probable cause of transmission. Of the 478 clients served in 2005, 30% had mental health issues, 60% have both mental health and substance abuse problems, and 70% had incomes of less than $10,000 per year.

During 2005, 15% of our new clients were homeless at intake, and almost 25% of the 478 clients served were homeless, or at risk of homelessness during the course of the year.

About 24,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses from throughout Western Washington will converge on the Tacoma Dome during the next two weekends for their annual district conventions.

The first convention will start Thursday and end Saturday – starting and ending a day earlier than usual – because of a scheduling conflict with another event at the Dome on Sunday. Convention spokesman Henry Schwerdtfeger said organizers for the Witnesses and Dome staff members came to a mutual agreement over the schedule.

The second convention will run on its customary Friday-through-Sunday schedule, July 3-5. Witnesses do not celebrate the July Fourth holiday.

Each three-day convention will draw about 12,000 people and spotlight the theme “Keep on the Watch!” Talks will focus on world developments in light of biblical prophecy. Witnesses believe these signs show “we are approaching the end of this system of things.”

Schwerdtfeger said the signs of the end include terrorism, economic collapse, divorce and abortion. He called the conventions a “three-day survival course to help families make wise decisions to survive the end of this system.”

As in 2007, Witnesses are going door-to-door during the three weeks before the meetings to attempt to invite every Western Washington household. There are about 34,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in Washington, including an estimated 3,200 in Pierce County.

The meetings are free and open to the public; no offerings are collected. For more information, visit www.watchtower.org or call 206-295-2962.