IT'S CREATED IN SAN FRANCISCO BY LET’S KICK ASS TO RECOGNIZE AND HONOUR THOSE LIVING LONGEST WITH HIV, AND TO SPOTLIGHT THE PRESENT-DAY INTRICACIES OF SURVIVAL WHILE AGING WITH HIV
The second annual National HIV/AIDS Long-Term Survivors Awareness Day (NHALTSAD) is Friday, June 5, 2015. Let’s Kick ASS—AIDS Survivor Syndrome created the awareness day in 2014 to recognize and honor those living longest with HIV. NHALTSAD spotlights the present-day intricacies of survival while aging with HIV. It also stresses the importance of keeping those older adults without HIV from acquiring it.
This year’s theme is “Every Survivor Counts” because many long-term survivors feel forgotten and invisible. Most survivors are isolated and are coping with psychosocial effects of long-term survival including depression, hopelessness, and AIDS survivor syndrome (ASS). Now they are also dealing with poverty, ageism and a lack of meaning and purpose because they had the audacity to survive.
#EverySurvivorCounts is a reminder to survivors that matter. It is also about raising awareness that tens of thousands are surviving AIDS. They are every gender, identity and sexuality — lesbian, gay, transgender and straight. They are all ethnicities and they survived the darkest days of the AIDS epidemic with courage and compassion and as individuals and a community, survivors exhibited strength and resilience they didn’t know they possessed.
National HIV/AIDS Long-Term Survivor Awareness Day is held annually on an important anniversary. On June 5, 1981 the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) published a brief account of five young gay men diagnosed with Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), indicating signs of severely compromised immune systems. It was the beginning of AIDS awareness before it was known as HIV/AIDS.
Let’s Kick ASS — AIDS Survivor Syndrome (LKA) is the lead sponsor and organizer of the annual AIDS observance day. LKA is a national grassroots movement of long-term survivors, positive and negative, honoring the unique and profound experience of living through the AIDS epidemic. It is the largest and most dynamic organization of it’s kind, engaging stakeholders to better understand the challenges and the solutions while encouraging them to take action to optimize survivors’ lives.
We encourage groups everywhere to begin planning events in your cities and towns now. Make them your own but honor long-term survivors. They deserve it.
Send your listing or questions to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Twitter: @AIDSsurvivors
Facebook.com/NationalHIVAIDSLongTermSurvivorsAwarenessDay
Social Media Hashtags:
#NHALTSAD #EverySurvivorCounts #AIDSLongTermSurvivors #AIDSSurvivors #BePartOfYourFuture
