Improving the Lives of People Affected by HIV/AIDS

Since the early years of the HIV epidemic, Fernando Castillo, 56, has relied on the San Francisco AIDS Foundation for services and support that have played a crucial role in keeping him healthy. Castillo has been an AIDS Foundation client and volunteer since the early 1980s, when he came here with friends to get up-to-date information, referrals and support.

"When I found out I was infected, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation was the only place to get both emotional support and information about HIV," recalls Castillo. "There was very little information, we were all quite scared, and my friends and I desperately needed help. The AIDS Foundation opened its doors and provided a forum for us to come together. We created a family that supported each other through everything-- grief, pain and joy. It continues to be a safe place where I experience serenity."

Castillo now volunteers as a peer advocate, using the knowledge and skills he has gained to help others. Being bilingual allows him to advocate for his friends who speak only Spanish. In addition, Castillo was one of the original members of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation's Latino Support Group (El Grupo) one of the nation's oldest and longest running bilingual support groups for Latinos/as living with HIV and their families.

"El Grupo offers a safe environment for sharing information about living with HIV and gives us a place to meet to support each other," explains Castillo. "We grieve together, we get angry together and above all we can be open and honest with each other. The group helped me discover strengths about myself that I did not know I had to give."

Castillo is just one of the thousands of people served by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Every year, over 1,000 clients access the AIDS Foundation's direct services, receiving financial benefits counseling, housing support, and referrals and information about other services available to them. Additionally, it is estimated that more than 4,000 individuals obtain clean syringes to reduce the risk of HIV infection from the AIDS Foundation's needle exchange program, the HIV Prevention Project. Hundreds more access our other prevention programs, including the Black Brothers Esteem program and related community mobilization efforts.

AIDS Foundation Clients Share Their Stories

In this issue of OUTReach, several clients of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation share their experiences and the impact the AIDS Foundation has had on their lives. We hope their stories will give you a better sense of how the San Francisco AIDS Foundation continues to work to end the epidemic and the human suffering caused by HIV.

Tina Ochoa

I found out I was HIV-positive in 2001. Shortly after I learned my status, I lost my job, hurt my back, lost over 20 pounds and became extremely depressed. This was a very low point in my life. I was sick, depressed and unable to work, so I went to the UCSF AIDS Health Project for counseling and they referred me to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation for assistance with some of my needs. An AIDS Foundation financial benefits counselor helped me apply for a health insurance payment program, the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) and for my Social Security disability.

Once I had proper medical care and secured my disability income I was able to focus on my health, which slowly returned. Even though I was feeling better, I was isolated at home and realized I needed to do something to give back to the community, so I started to volunteer at the AIDS Foundation. I took the hotline training and began answering calls on the California HIV/AIDS Hotline. When California's ADAP was in jeopardy in 2004, I went to Sacramento to speak to my elected officials about the importance of this program to my health. I also helped out in other ways-- from administrative activities to special events--including being an AIDS/ LifeCycle roadie for three years. For the first time in a few years I felt useful--I was giving back, had regained my confidence, and felt less alone.

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation helped me get back on my feet. I now have a job that I love, my health is good and my T cell count is great. Coming to the AIDS Foundation got me to think--and to help other people, not just myself.

Samuel Stewart

For nearly 10 years, I was a regular exchanger with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation's HIV Prevention Project (HPP). Before needle exchange, there were 'shooting galleries' and sometimes five to six people would share one needle. I know that access to needle exchange has saved many, many lives. Thanks to HPP, I stayed healthy, though I did contract hepatitis C, which affects many people who inject drugs. I'm now very healthy and doing fine.

When I was an exchanger, I always felt safe and I trusted the staff and volunteers at the needle exchange site. I also used to exchange for other people who couldn't make it to the exchange site -- sometimes up to 200 or 300 needles at a time. Everyone at HPP was always respectful and they listened to me, which is usually not the case when you are an injection drug user.

In 2002, I went into treatment at Walden House and I'm now clean and sober, and working at a local nonprofit, the San Francisco Clean City Coalition. Part of my job entails collecting used needles that were not disposed of properly and bringing them to an exchange. I work hard collecting needles off the street, in an effort to keep it safe for kids and for everyone in the community.

I love the exchange. As a former exchanger, I know it helped me and many others remain healthy. Injection drug users would experience many more health problems if it weren't for needle exchange.

Tom T.

I've been living with HIV disease for over 15 years and have been disabled eight years due to AIDS-related complications. The San Francisco AIDS Foundation has helped me receive lifesaving HIV medications that are affordable, as well as stable housing through their subsidy program. Five years ago I almost lost my disability income, which is my only means of support. This was the first time in my life that I truly felt helpless and did not know where to turn. The financial benefits counselors at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation helped me successfully compile a very long, complex Social Security application and I was able to re-qualify for my disability benefits.

At the beginning of this year, when the new Medicare Part D plan went into effect, I was told by my pharmacist that the co-pay on each of my HIV medications would be $35 each. I take four different HIV medicines each day. When I signed up for this new Medicare plan, my co-pays were supposed to be $1-3 per prescription, not $35! I could not afford these co-pays, so I left the pharmacy empty handed. I went without my HIV medications for five days. I was confused and I did not know how to resolve this problem, so I called the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and they immediately started to advocate on my behalf to correct this serious error. I can now fill my prescriptions at an affordable price.

I'm so grateful to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation for providing me with the resources and support I need to get through these difficult situations.

Norman Tanner

Back in 1993, I tested positive for HIV and was diagnosed with full-blown AIDS. The doctors gave me three months to live. It was also in 1993 that I saw the San Francisco AIDS Foundation's campaign "Be Here for the Cure."

I wanted to be alive to see the cure, so I started to take control of my life and my health. At first I tried reducing the way my drug use was harming me, but soon I realized that HIV medications and street drugs just don't mix. I entered drug treatment in 1996 and have been clean and sober for almost ten years. Today HIV is undetectable in my system and I have 1000 T cells!

The Black Brothers Esteem (BBE) program offers me--and my brothers-- a safe place to grieve the people we have lost to AIDS, and it provides an open, honest forum to discuss what we're going through. BBE is the place where I turned grieving into learning. I learned about myself, overcame my substance use, and developed healthy relationships with friends, family and myself.

My participation in BBE gave me the confidence and the tools to travel to Washington, DC to meet with my elected officials and discuss the challenges of living with HIV. As the membership of BBE grows, so does our presence at community events and our ability to reach people in the Tenderloin and Hunters Point, two of the neighborhoods hardest hit by HIV/AIDS in San Francisco.

I'm proud to be a part of this program at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. My work with BBE gives me purpose.