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Persons with HIV available for interviews before or after event
Southern Arizonans will gather for a special World AIDS Day community event this Sunday, uniting to share experiences, remember loved ones lost, provide encouragement to people living with HIV, and stand together as a community.
On December 1, 2024, communities around the world will host events to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS as a global pandemic. Current estimates by UNAIDS say 39.9 million people are living with HIV, and 42.3 million people have died as a result of HIV/AIDS. Here in the United States, an estimated 1.2 million people are now living with HIV. World AIDS Day is a day designated to remind us that HIV remains an issue that impacts community members here in Tucson and around the world.
The Tucson Interfaith HIV/AIDS Network (TIHAN), along with El Rio’s Special Immunology Associates, the Petersen HIV Clinics, and the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation (SAAF) are sponsoring this local commemoration of World AIDS Day. The event will be held in the Fellowship Hall on the southeast corner of the church campus of Catalina United Methodist Church (2700 E Speedway) on Sunday, December 1, gathering at 5:00pm, with the program taking place 5:30-6:30pm, followed by a reception and resource tables from 6:30-7:00pm.
This service will feature speakers living with HIV/AIDS, music and interpretive dance, a panel of medical providers sharing their thoughts, and a candle-lighting, bringing together the community in a time of hope and remembrance of all people infected and affected by the HIV/AIDS crisis in our world. Free and open to all.
Catalina’s Fellowship Hall is the site of TIHAN’s first gathering exactly 30 years ago—on December 1, 1994, their public debut which occurred on World AIDS Day. “TIHAN got its start 30 years ago, on this same night in this same spot, as we began our service to the community helping support people with HIV,” commented Scott Blades, TIHAN’s Executive Director and founder. “In the 1990’s we were helping support people dying from AIDS-related complications, but today, because of medical progress, we are able to support people in living with HIV disease. Thinking back to our start on World AIDS Day 1994, we sure didn’t think we’d still be needed 30 years later. But due to the need and the community support we’ve received, we’ve been able to continue serving the community as the disease has changed and the needs have modified.”
“This year’s World AIDS Day event is an opportunity for people to come together as a community to reflect and remind ourselves of our own responsibility in the fight against HIV/AIDS,” Blades said. “This year’s theme is ‘In Our Hands’ because we know there is much that each of us can do to be part of the solution. We can educate, we can offer prevention tools, we can support people who have HIV, we can volunteer or donate to the cause. Despite what some people think, there’s still much to be done, and for World AIDS Day, we need to stand in solidarity.”
For further information about the local event or about World AIDS Day or TIHAN’s 30th anniversary, contact Scott Blades, Executive Director, at 520-299-6647 (office) or 520-603-7601 (cell).
