Resources

While AIDS is considered a world pandemic, many people in the U.S. don't realize that one million Americans now have AIDS/HIV. Five hundred thousand Americans have already died from AIDS. Now the rising cases are increasing in the Mississippi Delta region and the South and Southeast.

The Secret Angels Project has been a very female driven organization, a fact that has helped to shape the compassionate core of our team members. The resources provided here are available to educate and warn anyone interested in learning about AIDS/HIV in America, but to especially provide information to women and teens about the risks of unprotected sex. Women may fall prey to AIDS, especially here in the South, because they don't believe AIDS is their problem.

Data from an HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study published in 1999 by the Rand Corporation indicated that only one-third to one-half of people living with HIV/AIDS were in regular HIV care-and the rates were worse in the South. The combination of financing structures and race/ethnicity and low income levels interact to worsen the disparities in health care. Without anti-retroviral therapy, approximately 25% of pregnant HIV-infected women will transmit the disease to their child.

Teens, especially, wrongly believe that AIDS is a gay disease or a problem only in countries like Africa. But with half of all new HIV infections happening under the age of twenty-five, getting the word out to young people coming of age is an urgent matter. Our goal is to educate women and teens about the threat of AIDS and other STI's in order to help reduce the number of emerging young women infected by AIDS/HIV by their child-bearing years.

A woman's best kept secret should not be AIDS.

We urge moms to take some time with your middle school and high school age children to coach them toward mature and wise lifestyles. A teen's best ally is still his or her parent.

Here we provide resources with the deep abiding belief that a teen's home is still the best place to educate young people on the threat of AIDS and other STI's:

AID's Timeline

Note the ABC videos about stories of teens like Ryan White, Ricky Ray, and other teens stigmatized by HIV.

AIDS in the Body

ABC video dated July 8, 1996 that shows a live AIDS virus cell invading a human t-cell.

AIDS Virus, a Stealth Bomber

Compare the complications that ensued in treating the AIDS virus; this video is dated June 25, 2001.

Global HIV and AIDS Statistics

These statistics are really shocking. But it’s better to live in reality and in-the-know rather than in the dark, right?

  • Roughly over one million people are living with HIV/AIDS in the United States.
  • An estimated 41% of Americans with HIV/AIDS live in the South.
  • Since the start of the AIDS epidemic, 1.5 million Americans have been infected with HIV and more than 524,000 have died of AIDS.
  • At least 50,000 people are infected each year.
  • African Americans account for 48% of new HIV infections.
  • AIDS is the leading cause of death for African American women aged 25 to 34 and HIV rates among Hispanic women are increasing.
  • The number of women living with HIV has tripled in the last two decades and at last count was estimated at over 15.2 million women.
  • At least half of all new infections are among people under the age of 25. That’s a young person every fifteen seconds.
  • Globally, one child dies every minute from AIDS.
  • The numbers keep on growing - a massive 6000* young people - aged 16-24 - are newly infected with HIV everyday.

Metrolina AIDS Project

The Safe Haven Project, Serving Youth with HIV

http://www.aegis.com

News about AIDS/HIV

http://www.hivinsite.com/InSite

Up-to-date information on treatment and prevention of HIV.

RAIN: Regional AIDS Interfaith Network


From the website for teens: Staying Alive.