Description

KVIE teaches you all about the Breaking Barriers HIV help organization.

Transcript

Breaking barriers has 120 active volunteers and its mission is to help people living with HIV/AIDS. Craig Spatola: We take them to and from medical and social work appointments, take people to the grocery store, shopping, clean their house. We have our educational workshops. We do educational outreach. We do referrals to alcohol and drug treatment programs. We work closely with several other agencies including cares, the center for AIDS research and educational services. Though controversial, some researchers say needle exchange programs – like this one in San Francisco’s tenderloin – slow the spread of HIV/AIDS among injection drug users. In California, syringe exchange is illegal. Counties that declare a state of medical emergency are allowed to operate openly. But most exchanges in the Sacramento region are underground. Saving drug users and the disenfranchised. For years Larry Barker has been heading into high risk neighborhoods, including one that used to be referred to as HIV ground zero. Now… Larry Barker: In every neighborhood they probably got ground zero. By connecting with people, Larry finds undiagnosed infected individuals and gets them into treatment. According to the CDC, one million people in the U.S. are living with HIV/AIDS. About 25% them don’t know they have the virus. Larry Barker: You been making all your appointments? All my appointments. Larry Barker: Boy, you’ve come a long way. Larry is an outreach worker for the cares medical clinic, which serves people in several counties throughout the Sacramento region. Larry Barker: Hey Doug…what’s up? Ted Ross: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If we can prevent a few infections, we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars in medication that’s costing healthcare providers, costing you and me as taxpayers. So there’s a whole dollars and cents piece of it as well. Ted Ross is a businessman, community leader, and chair of capital city AIDS fund or CCAF. Ted Ross: The capital city AIDS fund was created over a decade ago in the Sacramento area to serve as a community fund. We stage events that raise money and then in turn provide the money to agencies providing HIV services in the Sacramento area. CCAF has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for services. But it became evident: more was needed. Ted Ross: There are a lot of AIDS service providers unable to provide frank messages to young people. Frank educational messages. And a lot of that has to do with federal funding being cut off if that happens. And so CCAF takes no federal funds. We’re not bound by those rules. So we’re able to put frank messages out there about safe and sane practices and say you going to think about this every time you’re going to have sex. Over the past year, CCAF’s educational campaign has distributed 30,000 free condoms in popular bars, night clubs, and special events attended by young adults. Ted Ross: So if we prevented just a few infections…it’s way worth it. This is all about saving lives.