The Presidential primaries are heating up after a super (duper) close race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama yesterday - here are the overall voting stats for each candidate:
TOTAL VOTES CAST
Clinton: 50.2% (7,347,971)
Obama: 49.8% (7,294,851)
I wonder how instrumental Obama’s start-studded video was in bringing awareness to his campaign… The new video has scored about 2 Million views on YouTube. What do you think?
Yes We Can
Here is a great song from Annie Lenox called Sing. It brings attention to women and children living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Please visit our friends at the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Program at Columbia University to see what they are doing to help women and children fight HIV/AIDS in South Africa and neighboring countries.
GFF would like to extend a big THANK YOU to Coach Shannon and Coach Bowden for lending their voices to bring awareness to young people living with HIV/ AIDS!
Thank you for your leadership both on and off of the field!
Florida College Football Powerhouses Team Up on World AIDS Day to Help KOOL Kids Youth Group Tackle HIV and AIDS
Florida State University Head Coach Bobby Bowden and University of Miami Head Coach Randy Shannon Join Forces to Support “Through Their Eyes” Photographic Exhibit Created by Young Adults Born with HIV/AIDS
Florida Department of Health Partners with FSU and the Green Family Health Initiative at University of Miami to Transport “Through Their Eyes” Exhibit from Miami to Tallahassee.
Check out the coaches’ video statements here!
Miami Herald: October 9, 2007
News and Events - Youths’ HIV photo exhibit at Dolphin Mall
An art exhibition at Dolphin Mall showcases a summer project completed by local young people living with HIV.
ROBERT SAMUELS, rsamuels@MiamiHerald.com
The 30-some pictures set at Dolphin Mall are of natural life: a small, gray bird drinking from a fountain. A yellow fire hydrant. Sunset in Miami. And close-ups of different roses, some closed and others in full bloom.
But the simple things tell a more complex story. It is one that weaves the wonders of science with the curiosity of youths born with five fingers, five toes and the virus that causes AIDS.
“My life isn’t really that different from yours,” said Quintara Lane, a 21-year-old from Miami Gardens who was born with HIV. “It’s just my immune system is a little weaker.”
Each year, the University of Miami’s KOOL Kids program — a support group for young people born with HIV — is given a project, such as a car wash or a bake sale. This summer, they received Nikon point-and-shoot cameras.
“Photography was a good project because it’s like any other type of art,” said Kimberly Green, president of the Green Family Foundation, which sponsored the camera project. “It’s like art or music. You see it or you hear it, and you try to understand someone’s life.”
The best pictures of the 600 submitted by the young people will be displayed in the mall for the next month. Then the exhibition will travel to different places over South Florida, hoping to inspire dialogue about young people born with HIV.
A crowd of 30 or so members, relatives and supporters on Tuesday christened the exhibition. Some passers-by stopped to listen to a group of four young men rapping: “If I could paint a picture, a perfect picture, there’d be no more HIV.”
For Lane, one of few willing to openly discuss her health, the project was an outlet to express what life is like: There is the fear of stigma and days of intense sadness or sickness. But it seems as natural as a green lizard walking on the grass, as commonplace as a fire hydrant.
“It’s like the flowers,” Lane said. “You never really notice us until we open up.”
Lane was raised by her grandmother in Miami Gardens.
She remembers taking 32 pills a day when she was a child, and how her friends shunned her when she disclosed her condition. They didn’t want to play with her or be in the same pool with her, she recalled.
Now Lane takes only three pills a day.
It’s a similar story for many children born with the disease, said Ana Garcia, a professor of pediatrics who helps to organize the KOOL Kids program.
Their generation has benefited from improved science and continued research. Once, birth with HIV or AIDS meant a short life.
No more.
Two-thirds of the 300 young people Garcia works with are 13 or older. Sixty-two are 18 or older.
“They’re going to college, they’re growing up,” said Garcia. “When they meet, they talk about normal teenage things — jobs, school. Sometimes the virus never comes up.”
Lane thanked the small crowd for coming. And then the KOOL kids ended their night like many teenagers end a night at the mall: chatting over hamburgers at Johnny Rockets.
Hi everyone - We’d like to share with you the recent article about the Green Family Foundation featured on the newly launched Capazine.com.
Enjoy!
The NY Times reports that 139,000 babies were born with HIV/AIDS in Mozambique last year. The Green Family Foundation had the fortunate experience of visiting many HIV/AIDS and community health clinics in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, as well as the northern cities of Nampula and Nacala. While the numbers are staggering, organizations such as Columbia University’s International Center For AIDS Care and Treatment Program (ICAP) are making incredible strides to educate, prevent, and treat women infected with HIV, and to stop the transmission from mother to child.
ICAP works in 14 countries throughout Africa and brings some of the worlds best and brightest together to continue the fight against HIV/AIDS.
While we’ve recently had some good news in the fight against HIV/AIDS with President Bush asking Congress for $30 Billion, there’s certainly room for the US to contribute more to the global fight against AIDS.
The world needs more heroes and Miami has one of it’s own with Ms. Queen Brown who has launched a radio show, “What’s Going On” on News Radio 1080. Ms. Brown was recently featured on CNN’s Heroes – Please check out her story and support her efforts to stamp out youth violence in Miami.
About Queen Brown and “What’s Going On”:
Violence Intervention and Prevention Services Inc. is a not-for-profit organization which assists victims of violent crimes and their families rebuild their lives. The organization was founded by Queen Brown after her experience of losing her innocent son to gun violence. She found it to be very challenging and in some cases even impossible to access servces designated to assist victims of violent crimes. This not-for-profit corporation has been organized to reduce violent crimes and the impact that these crimes have on survivors and their families. These efforts include coalition building, timely intervention and prevention services that are easily accessible and user sensitive. Her goal is to provide compassionate, professional and courteous assistance in an expeditious manner to victims of violent crimes and their families during the most vunerable times of their lives. Through her organization she provides victims of violent crimes and their families much needed guidance with coming out of the dark and seeing the light.
What’ Going On? is the violence intervention and prevention community talk show that was founded and is hosted by a grieving mom Queen Brown and co-hosted by her children Elizabeth, Ewan & Monique. Her method is to create healthy dialogue within the community to seek answers and solutions to the increase in homicides.
Queen Brown on “CNN Heroes” video on Ms. Brown can be viewed here: Queen Brown
Learn more about Queen Brown here: More!
The Green Family Foundation has recently had the honor to begin working with Jeffrey Sachs’ team at the Earth Institute on an exciting new project - Look out for an official announcement in the coming weeks! In the meantime, Take a look at Jeffrey Sachs’ Miami Herald article on international aid, the Millennium Development Goals and promises made but not kept.
Read more about the Millennium Development goals here.
Jeffrey Sachs is the Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Learn more about the Earth Institute’s community driven approaches to health and development through the Millennium Project. The Millennium Project provides a plan to begin achieving the MDG’s by 2015.
Human Service Coalition’s own Daniella Levine wrote a an editorial in the May 8th Miami Herald highlighting “Miami 21” and the affordable housing crunch. Thanks to people like Daniella, the importance of city planning and affordable housing is staying on the forefront of local and state politics. Please write your local representatives to let them know how important green spaces, affordable housing, and neighborhood-centered planning is to you and your community!!
Check out Daniella’s article here:
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/story/99448.html
Find out who represents your community here:
Project FLOW (Future Leaders of The World)
The Green Family Foundation proudly supports project FLOW through the Green Family Health Initiative at the University of Miami - Working in collaboration with the Department of Pediatrics and the Division of Adolescent Medicine and Youth Expressions, Project FLOW is an expressive arts show which was held at the New Birth Baptist Church on March 23rd featuring urban teens from the Miami area. The dynamic and uncensored show included live hip hop, spoken word and dance performances. The event featured a friendly talent competition between three groups of teens: Baypoint School North, Youth Expressions (urban arts teen group) and Pridelines (program for LGBT youth).
FLOW is a youth-based health education project that utilizes peer education and training, combined with open group dialogue and collaborative expressive art projects to communicate positive information to youth peers. This program serves as a lesson in self expression and gives participants the tools to become peer advocates on a range of important topics they are currently faced with: HIV/AIDS, sexuality, self-esteem and drug/alcohol prevention.
This year’s event featured special panelist: Nadia Turner and New Times’ reporter Francisco Alvarado.