Bronx Borough promotes HIV and AIDS prevention as part of Latino Heritage Month
October 16, 2009
Patricia Jennings listens to Bronx Borough's NLADD guest speaker, Richard Nadal.
Richard Nadal is fighting the war against HIV and AIDS from his wheelchair.
As the special guest speaker at the National Latino AIDS Awareness Day (NLADD) yesterday, Nadal gave accolades to the Bronx community leaders who are also working toward HIV awareness and prevention.
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. was especially honored as a “soldier in the ranks.”
President Diaz presented a proclamation to the Bronx HIV Care Network and the Montefiore Medical Center, promoting HIV and AIDS prevention efforts in the Latino community and the Bronx as a whole. Those who attended the commemoration of NLADD not only sought to spread awareness, but also to provide a support system for those who live with HIV and AIDS.
More adults in the Bronx are diagnosed with AIDS than in 43 states, Diaz said. Within New York, the Bronx is the hardest hit by the virus.
President Diaz also said that 51 percent of people living with this epidemic in the Bronx are female Hispanics.
“This epidemic is decimating Latinos in the Bronx and in the nation,” Jose Davila, the executive director of Bronx AIDS Services, said.
Richard Nadal, 55, has been HIV positive for 19 years. The Latino wore a sweatshirt with the name of his birthplace, Puerto Rico, emblazoned on the front, but he spoke for unity within the Bronx community.
“In any fight, any war, people have to stick together. Until there is a cure for this virus, we have to love each other,” Nadal said from his wheelchair. “At the end of the day, it’s love that’s going to keep us fighting.”
Non-Latino members of the community, such as Patricia Jennings, attended the event to give support to those who suffer with HIV.
For the past 15 years, Jennings has been living with HIV. She knows for a fact that the virus does not discriminate.
“It’s not just a disease that affects you if you’re gay, lesbian, or an intravenous drug user,” the 50-year-old Bronx native said. “It affects parents and children.”
As an activities coordinator for the Bronx HIV Care Network, Jennings, an African American, is familiar with the shocking number of women affected by HIV and AIDS. Jennings estimated that 42 percent to 45 percent of black females in the Bronx are infected.
Jennings was diagnosed on Dec. 25, Christmas Day, in 1994. At that time, there was little to no hope for people who had HIV or AIDS. She withdrew from the College of New Rochelle in the Bronx, where she was working toward a major in adult psychology.
“I had a 4.1 (grade point) average,” Jennings said. “I put my education on hold because I thought I had to prepare for my burial.”
Jennings is now living with HIV as a controlled disease, but it isn’t easy.
“I take over 4,400 pills a year. I see a doctor at least three times a month. And that’s when I’m doing well. That’s just for maintaining the disease,” she said. “It’s like a little bit of chemo every day.”
This regimen does not include doctor’s visits for other health issues a woman over the age of 50 faces. The system is not perfect, Jennings said. Medicaid pays for most of her medical needs, but does not provide other services, such as dental care.
Additionally, Jennings has to pay for rent and raise her 13-year-old daughter, who has been infected with HIV since birth.
In spite of a disease that was once considered a death sentence, Jennings is an active member of her community. She has plans to resume her education at the College of New Rochelle in January, and hopes to earn her master’s degree in psychology. Through her own education and experience, Jennings hopes to teach others how to protect themselves from HIV.
“Education is the key to combat AIDS,” she said. “I’m going to fight until I’m no longer here.”
Good Food Garden provides healthier alternatives for housing community
October 10, 2009
A view of the Good Food Garden on display in the Meatpacking District.
Every Saturday, from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Juan Acevedo helps his Uncle Miguel at the youth farmer’s market, selling local foods from upstate farms to families in his housing community.
Acevedo, along with his friends in the Fulton Youth of the Future program, yesterday attended the public unveiling of Manhattan’s first Good Food Garden, which will be transferred and permanently located at the Robert Fulton Houses.
A joint project of the Food Network, Share Our Strength and Teich Garden Systems, the Good Food Garden was created as part of an effort to educate children about healthy eating.
The garden was temporarily exhibited at Hudson and 14th St. in the Meatpacking District, but will be transferred on Sunday and permanently located at the Robert Fulton Houses in Chelsea.
“We wanted to do something for the residents of the Meatpacking District because they’re hosting the New York City Wine & Food Festival in their neighborhood,” a representative from Share Our Strength said.
The Good Food Garden was one of the few non-ticketed, free exhibits featured during the four day festival.
About a dozen Good Food Gardens have already been built in the United States, and another will be opening this weekend in the Harlem Children Zone. Several are located at schools and incorporated into the classroom curriculum.
The gated garden featured a variety of lush lettuces and cabbages, herbs, sugar peas and snap peas.
“This garden will make our youth farmer’s market even better,” Acevedo, 18, said. “We [already] sell the same type of products, so the garden will add to the supply of vegetables and greens.”
Share Our Strength, a non-profit organization that aims to end child hunger in America by 2015, will provide ongoing grants to help members of the Fulton community take care of the garden.
The high school senior said his eating habits have improved since working with the Fulton Youth Green Market.
“I’ve definitely eaten more fruits and vegetables because of this experience,” he said.
His uncle, Miguel Acevedo, approves of this change. The executive director for the Fulton Youth of the Future Program, Acevedo strives to encourage members of his community to eat healthier foods.
Acevedo, 49, was diagnosed with diabetes in 2007 because of his weight. To combat his health problem, Acevedo changed his diet.
But improving his fruit and vegetable intake was not enough. Acevedo also wanted to reach out to the younger generation, teaching them how to prevent diabetes, heart attacks and high blood pressure.
When Chelsea Market approached him with the idea of a youth market in Fulton Houses, he jumped on board because it would provide residents with healthier food alternatives.
Food Network and Chelsea Market donate money to the Fulton Houses so they can get local foods from upstate farms, which the youth then sell to the housing community.
The Good Food Garden will continue to offer these alternatives after the youth farmer’s market closes for the season at the end of this month.
“It’s a perfect learning tool because it’s right in front of you, in your own backyard,” he said. “There’s no excuse not to know about it.”
Students Help Parents Rally for Paid Sick Days
Students hold up a Make the Road New York banner.
Leonardo Aries and David Dasrath cut school to join hundreds of others in chanting, “Yes we can!” in Spanish outside of New York City Hall.
Aries, 17, and Dasrath, 16, estimated that they each missed school at least 10 to 15 times last year.
Instead of skipping school to have fun, the juniors from the Academy for Environmental Leadership in Brooklyn usually stay at home to take care of their parents or siblings. Yesterday, however, they missed school to support their community.
Aries and Dasrath, along with hundreds of New York City high school students and their parents, rallied together for a bill that could make paid sick days a workplace standard.
“Over 1.5 million, 48 percent, of working New Yorkers don’t get any paid sick days,” said Nancy Rankin, a senior fellow with the legal advocacy organization, A Better Balance. “Most people take it for granted. They think everyone has paid sick days.”
A Better Balance worked with Make the Road New York and the New York City Paid Sick Days Coalition to gather support for the rally. Most supporters were members of MRNY, a community-based member organization that works to spread democracy and equality to low-income immigrants from Latin America.
Their goal is to change policy laws so that people can work and care for their families.
“They passed similar laws in San Francisco, D.C., Milwaukee, and we want New York to be next,” Rankin said.
The inability to have sick time off puts everyone at risk. People who cannot afford to stay at home to care for themselves or their loved ones have no choice but to go to work.
According to the Coalition, “Studies show when employees come to work sick, they can slow productivity, infect their co-workers, and are more likely to cause a workplace accident.”
Adults are not the only ones affected by unpaid sick days. When parents cannot take time off work, they often rely upon their older children to care for their younger siblings.
“If one of my sisters gets sick, I have to stay home and miss my school days to take care of them,” said Aries. Making up ten days’ worth of schoolwork is very stressful, he said.
A student at the Pan American International High School in Queens, Francisco Curil, 17, also worries that his mother’s unpaid work days will hurt his academic performance and hinder his potential future.
The high school senior has aspirations to attend Queens College after graduation.
“I want to study to be a math teacher for high school, or have a job at a bank. I like numbers,” Curil said.
Curil’s mother works in a deli that does not pay for her sick days. When Curil’s 10-year-old sister is sick, he has to stay at home with her.
“Sometimes I can’t go to school because I have to take care of my sister,” he said. “But I really want to study.”
Curil said that he misses at least eight days of school every year. He hopes the mayor and city council members will pass the Paid Sick Time Act to help parents and their children.
“We [students] can change the government. We can change the economy. If we don’t get an education, we’ll work in restaurants or drive trucks,” Curil said. “We need to focus on our educations.”
The LGBT Community Center Hosts Third Annual Job Fair
Members of the LGBT community explore their future career options at the third annual Out to Work job fair.
Like so many other Americans in today’s economic downturn, Candy Ramos is having a hard time finding a job that will help her pay the bills.
“I could sell drugs and I could sell sex, but I don’t want to go to jail,” she said. Instead, Ramos waited in long lines with hundreds of other people to meet representatives from companies with open positions.
Ramos, a transgender woman from Queens, along with over 3,000 members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, yesterday attended the third annual Out to Work event, the largest LGBT job fair in the Northeast.
A joint project of the LGBT Community Center and the Greenwich Village-Chelsea Chamber of Commerce (GVCCC), Out to Work hosted 41 companies that advocate equality for LGBT employees in the workplace.
With regards to sexual identity and orientation, companies generally employ a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy; however, this option does not apply as easily to transgender men and women.
“I can’t hide anything,” Ramos, 45, said about the prejudice she has faced as a transgender woman. “On the résumé and on the phone I’m fine, but when I go to the interview, suddenly the position is filled.”
Based on her past experiences, Ramos believes that transgender and transsexual teenagers do not often graduate from high school. She is proud of her high school diploma, but in a room full of attendees with college degrees and various qualifications, she worried that no one would give her a job offer.
“As a transgender, it’s difficult normally to get a job,” Ramos said, “but it’s extremely hard right now because of the economy.”
Greg Weachock, 38, of New York City, has faced discrimination in the workplace for being gay. He tried to hide his sexuality at previous jobs, but was unhappy.
“It’s exhausting trying to live two lives,” Weachock said, “No one should have to do that.”
Weachock also knows firsthand how important it is to work for a company that supports members of his community. During the seven years he worked at Merrill Lynch, Weachock was encouraged to be himself, which allowed him to finally reconcile his work life with his personal life. Coming out at work enabled him to finally tell his parents, who are conservative Ukranian Catholics, that he is gay.
“With all these companies supporting LGBT as a part of society, it helps family members also accept it,” Weachock said.
Douglas Frimmet, 47, traveled an hour from New Jersey to attend the job fair in Chelsea. Frimmet appreciated the efforts companies made to show their support for the LGBT community.
“I think it’s the start of LGBT recognition, but it will take time for the general public to recognize and accept us,” he said.
Organizers of the event believed it was a success. Though recent figures revealed that New York City’s unemployment rate was at 9.6%, the highest it has been since 1997, the job fair hosted the same number of companies as the previous year.
“This event is a beacon of hope for the community,” said Lauren Danziger, the executive director of the GVCCC. “People are out there, hiring.”
Eight Years Later
September 12, 2009
Jenifer Diaz and Linda Torrens remember their cousin, Jenine Gonzalez, who passed away on 9/11
Eight years after Sept. 11, 2001, crowds of people still return to Ground Zero, the now empty hole in New York’s Financial District where the Twin Towers once stood. Throngs of New Yorkers and tourists braved the cold rain and strong winds yesterday morning to pay their respects to those who lost their lives during the attacks.
Midway through the memorial ceremony, increasingly harsh weather conditions drove many locals and tourists away.
Umbrellas obscured the view of the ceremony across the street, but undeterred onlookers raised their digital cameras and continued to snap photos. When it began to rain harder, only a few remained. While some attributed the declining number of memorial viewers to the inclement weather, there is reason to believe that the lack of publicity and inaccessibility to the memorial service caused the poor turnout.
“The first year after 9/11, there were so many people we couldn’t move,” said Wilson Nweke, 42, of Battery Park. “The number of people gets small as the years go by.
A Jehovah’s Witness, Nweke has attended the memorial ceremony since 2002 to comfort those who lost family and friends.
Every year since the World Trade Center collapse, Bonny Ariax, 40, from Jackson Heights, Queens, and Segundo Huerta, 42, of Flushing, Queens, have built seven-foot tall replicas of the towers and brought them to Ground Zero. Ariax said the wood-frame models help him remember the Twin Towers as they were before they collapsed. These were happier times, he said. Ariax also noticed a shrinking number of people who attend the event.
“Today, maybe because it’s raining. Or, maybe because they forget,” said Ariax. He believes that there should be more publicity for the service. “They should advertise more, two or three days before.”
A Del. Native who has lived in Manhattan for the past five years, Rebekah Kramer, 21, attended the service for the second time yesterday. She wanted to come back this year out of remembrance and respect. Kramer, as well as others who also wanted to show their respects, were not allowed to move closer to the ceremony, because it was closed to the general public. From across the street where she stood, she was unable to see or hear anything.
“I think it’s a shame that they can’t close this one block of Broadway and make it more accessible to the public,” Kramer said.
For tourists like Craig Wood, 55, who was visiting from Australia, navigating the streets yesterday proved to be a challenge. After winding his way past cordons and crowds, Wood also ended up on Broadway. At least four police barriers and a street separated him from the ceremony.
“From the subway stop, it took about 20 minutes to get here, and it was difficult to find,” Wood said, “It’s not very inclusive at all.”
Sisters Jenifer Diaz, 37, and Linda Torrens, 46, from the Bronx, shielded themselves against the rain with clear plastic ponchos.
“If you’re related to someone who passed away, then there’s no such thing as not coming. This is sacred ground,” said Torrens.
Diaz and Torrens wore shirts that were dedicated to Jenine Gonzalez, a cousin who passed away on 9/11. Gonzalez worked on the 105th floor of one of the towers. Diaz explained that the memorial service provides a community where family of the deceased can meet survivors and rescuers. At yesterday’s event, she met one of her cousin’s former coworkers, a woman who had survived the attacks.
Diaz and Torrens also acknowledged the 2009 ceremony’s smaller audience. They attributed some of this to the weather, but also blamed the city of New York. They believed that the plan to erect a museum and memorial at the site is the city’s way of eliminating the need for future annual 9/11 memorial ceremonies and consequently decreasing foot traffic.
“This is the Financial District. They have to keep business going,” said Torrens, as people in suits walked past. “Families fight for these memorial services.”
