Winter 2007 Director’s Report

 

Dear Friends and Supporters:

 

2007 marks the 20th Anniversary of the Pierce County AIDS Foundation (PCAF).  In the years since 1987, we have served over 1,700 clients with direct services, and have blanketed the community with over 600,000 pieces of prevention literature and condoms.   We have been a loud voice combating stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS.  You have been our proud partner in this work.  You have walked in our AIDS Walk for 15 years, you have dined out for life every April for 13 years, you have worn the red ribbon, lit candles on World AIDS Day, and celebrated the lives we have saved together.  Thank you.

 

As we commemorate PCAF’s first 20 years of service and celebrate our many successes, we are sobered by the enormous challenges that remain.  It's been 26 years since the start of the AIDS epidemic. In that time, the number of those infected with HIV has grown to a staggering 40 million worldwide.  What was once a fatal illness is now a chronic, manageable disease but deficits still exist in treatment modalities.   More needs to be done to protect the rights of those infected - ­ from continued research and development of treatment options to universal access to treatment to the elimination of the stigma, which so often accompanies the disease.  We will continue our work of education and service to Pierce County for another 20 years, or as long as it takes to eradicate this disease.  We look forward to your partnership as we embark on a new era for PCAF.

 

We will reflect over the last 20 years in the coming year by featuring a series of educational forums and opportunities, fun events and activities, outreach to particularly impacted segments of the community, commemoration of those lost to the disease and celebration of the progress that has been made and the lives saved.   Please be on the look out for regular Director’s Reports to keep you up-to-date.  Also coming soon is more information detailing opportunities for you to participate, reflect, learn, and celebrate.  We are so good at what we do because we have dedicated partners like you standing at our side.

 

 

With gratitude –

 

 

Holly Morgan

Acting Director