TOMORROW, TUESDAY, JULY 24TH, NOON, 30,000+ AIDS ACTIVISTS SWARM STREETS OF DC TO DEMAND END OF AIDS
Jennifer Flynn
June 28, 2012
Contact: Jennifer Flynn: 917-517-5202, jfl...@healthgap.org
Julie Davids: 646-431-7525, jda...@aidschicago.org
7/24: PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV & ALLIES TO OCCUPY D.C.
DURING INTERNATIONAL AIDS CONFERENCE, CONVERGING ON WHITE HOUSE TO DEMAND AN
END TO THE EPIDEMIC
Yvonne Chaka Chaka (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvonne_Chaka_Chaka)
will speak and sing!
35+ Buses Rolling into Washington, DC
Over 30,000 -- DC residents, US activists from across the country & global delegates alike – to march to illuminate the social and economic costs of
putting profit in front of the resources, rights and policies that can end AIDS
Washington, DC: In a time in which science has shown the path to literally end the AIDS epidemic, and the Occupy movement has spotlighted the inequitable use of resources that constrain these and other efforts, more than 30,000 people living with HIV and other AIDS activists from hundreds of organizations worldwide will join to demand rights and resources to confront and cure HIV/AIDS.
The mobilization, entitled We Can End AIDS, will begin Tuesday, July 24, 2012 at 12 noon as five distinct branches flood downtown Washington with a range of creative and powerful actions. The marches, scheduled to occur during the International AIDS Conference, will snake through the streets of the District, including K Street, New York Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue, meeting Lafayette Park at 1 pm to deliver a powerful collective message to the White House and the world: To end the AIDS pandemic, we demand the political will necessary to ensure economic justice for all and to defend and protect the human rights of our marginalized communities, including people living with HIV & AIDS."
We Can End AIDS was created to draw attention to finding showing that, with only modest increases in funding and appropriate policies, the world could see the end of the AIDS pandemic within 30 years. We Can End AIDS is demanding the economic justice and human rights to make this a reality.
Bolstered by HPTN 052, the study which proved that treatment is an effective form of HIV prevention, and which indicated that widespread treatment could thus end the epidemic in a generation, each of the five branches of the mobilization points to what is needed to achieve this outcome:
· Demand an end to pharmaceutical greed- east side of Mt. Vernon Square (7th and K)
· Demand a Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street to end AIDS-west side of Mt. Vernon Square (9th and K)
Stop the war on women- : corner of 7th and Mass in front of church
· Demand sound public policies and full funding-Archives/Navy Memorial station (green line south to Archives)
· Protect human rights: end mass imprisonment and criminalization, and support harm reduction. K Street west of b/t 9th &10th
“People with HIV and other AIDS activists will be occupying every corner of Washington, DC’s power corridor in the middle of the day during the work week to make sure we are visible. No one can then say that they didn’t know that if they took action, we could end AIDS – and they will have to live with themselves and the ghosts of millions if they choose to ignore us,” says Nadine Bloch, We Can End AIDS Coalition Coordinator.
The International AIDS Conference will be held in Washington, DC from July 22-28th in Washington DC, a city with HIV rates higher than 32 African countries.
Follow: #endAIDS, www.wecanendaids.org
Jennifer Flynn
Managing Director
Health GAP
429 West 127th Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10027
mobile: +1-917-517-5202
phone: +1-212-537-0575
fax: +1-212-937-5283
skype: jenniferaliceflynn
e-mail: jfl...@healthgap.org
twitter: jenniferflynn
Jennifer Flynn
Managing Director
Health GAP
429 West 127th Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10027
mobile: +1-917-517-5202
phone: +1-212-537-0575
fax: +1-212-937-5283
skype: jenniferaliceflynn
e-mail: jfl...@healthgap.org
twitter: jenniferflynn