FYI

************************************************************************
Lack of knowledge leads to misguided and ineffective strategies.  Lack of
effective strategies leads to ineffective plans.  Ineffective plans
increase the likeliness of failure.  Failure increases apathy and
diminishes individual commitment.  Without commitment and action, our
meetings become pointless, our goals unattainable, and our greatest
advocates begin to disappear.

Kaleem M. S. Caire
Special Projects Director
Wisconsin Center for Academically Talented Youth (WCATY)
2909 Landmark Place
Madison, WI  53713
Phone: (608) 271-1617 ext. 22
Fax: (608) 271-8080
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
WCATY Web Site: www.wcaty.org

-----Original Message-----
From:   Kaleem M. S. Caire [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Wednesday, May 24, 2000 10:07 AM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Black Leaders Gather For AIDS Plans

Black Leaders Gather For AIDS Plans

.c The Associated Press


TUSKEGEE, Ala. (AP) - Black church leaders, trying to overcome policy
differences in their efforts to combat AIDS, have gathered in Tuskegee to
try
to put together a plan of action.

More than 300 bishops, pastors, priests and laymen from across the nation
and
as far away as Africa are taking part this week in the AIDS Conference for
Black Churches at Tuskegee University.

Black churches have been slow to take on AIDS because of the stigma
associated with frank discussion of sex, drugs and homosexuality in church,
church leaders said. There is also disagreement over issues such as the
distribution of condoms and needle-exchange programs.

``This hesitation is killing our people,'' U.S. Surgeon General David
Satcher
told the conference in a videotaped statement.

Blacks accounted for 45 percent of all AIDS cases reported in the United
States in 1998, according to federal data.

Africa is home to 23.3 million of the world's 33.6 million infected people,
said Dr. Helene Gayle, head of the AIDS center at the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. Within a decade, she said, there will be 40
million orphans in Africa because of the disease.

Church leaders and AIDS experts said their efforts likely will focus on
reaching teens and young adults.

The Rev. Calvin Butts III, president of the Council of Churches of the City
of New York, said churches must teach sex education.

``Unless we learn to talk about it, we're not going to solve the problem of
AIDS,'' he said. ``You can't be hypocritical about this, because it's
killing
us.''

Other leaders said churches should boost outreach efforts in jails and
prisons. Nearly one-fifth of people who are HIV-positive will be
incarcerated
at some point in their lives, according to CDC data.

Pernessa Seele, founder of The Balm in Gilead Inc., the organization that
sponsored the conference, said church leaders must provide better
counseling
and care to AIDS victims.

``Church folk are gay folk, they are . . . straight folk. We're all fami
ly,''
she said. ``But some people just don't get it. We've got to tear down all
these barriers.''

On the Net: CDC: http://www.cdc.gov

AP-NY-05-24-00 0603EDT

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP
news
report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed
without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.  All active
hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

Kaleem Caire

If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of
life,
But with confidence, you have won even before you have started.
--Marcus Mosiah Garvey

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