By Sharon Chamberlain | Executive Director
Thanks so much for your support. You've helped our project, STOPPING HIV 365, stay on track despite these difficult times. Your dollars really do save lives.
In just the first six months, our outreach team had 2457 interactions with young people living on the street. 300 came to our homeless youth drop-in program. And 79 participated in an educational intervention we call HIV 101.
One of them is Thomas, who's been on the street for years. "Life has been rough. There’s dirt and hatred and mean people and drama and drugs. My life is easier with Common Ground. I get counseling here and I get a lot of stuff off my chest."
Homeless youth are much more likely to face violence, addiction and mental health issues. 50% have serious mental health disorders. Over 70% report facing some form of violence since becoming homeless. And the rate of HIV infection is 13 times higher.
In this half year, we tested 112 youth for HIV. One young man who tested positive – a boy really – knew nothing about HIV or about prevention. It's heartbreaking. Funding for prevention programs has been slashed and we now have a whole new generation that is as vulnerable as ever to this completely preventable disease.
With your help, we can stop HIV. We just have to reach these youth.
We welcome your thoughts or suggestions.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
