SOUTH CAROLINA CAMPAIGN TO END AIDS MEDIA RELEASE

SOUTH CAROLINA CAMPAIGN TO END AIDS MEDIA RELEASE For immediate release: November 18, 2006 Contact: Karen Bates 803-750-5259 scaplwa@aol.com THIS MONDAY: PEOPLE LIVING WITH AIDS WILL MARCH AND PRAY TO STOP THE DYING AND END WAITING LISTS FOR HIV/AIDS DRUGS In response to the recent deaths of three South Carolinians with AIDS who were on the state-mandated waiting list for medications, hundreds of people living with AIDS and their supporters will rally and pray at government buildings in Columbia Monday to demand emergency funding to save lives and end the wait list. Last June, state officials set up a waiting list for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) that provides HIV/AIDS-related medications to low-income, uninsured and underinsured people living with HIV/AIDS, citing funding shortfalls. The waiting list for care has grown quickly, and many people with AIDS here are either going without treatment or getting inadequate care. "I cannot stand silently by when my government is throwing people away like trash by not providing life-saving medications," said Karen Bates of Columbia, Co-Chair of SC-C2EA and a woman living with HIV/AIDS. Bates and other people living with AIDS, service providers, union leaders and activists will hold prayer vigils at the Department of Health and Environmental Control and the State Capitol Monday to ask for $3 million in emergency funding to end the waiting lists. And they're working for more state and federal funding to resolve the crisis over the long term. "The first thing we need is for Health Commissioner Hunter to ask for $3 million in emergency money for ADAP," said Bates. "The second thing we need is for Governor Sanford and the Budget and Control Board to approve the $3 million and stop this needless death and suffering." The AIDS activists have won support for their cause from ministers, LGBT and progressive activists and the state AFL-CIO. "The Budget and Control Board is currently considering investing $10 million for a Confederate submarine to honor dead South Carolinians. I hope, and expect, that they will be willing to spend $3 million to keep South Carolinians with HIV alive," said Brett Bursey, Director of the SC Progressive Network. The South Carolina ADAP program needs $3 million to clear the waiting list for lifesaving drugs through June 2007 and another $8 million to make it through 2008. The Budget and Control Board has the power to spend emergency funds outside of the normal legislative process; activists are working with state and federal legislators to win funding as part of next year's budgets, but need the emergency funds to save lives now. South Carolina advocates will be joined in Monday's march by people living with HIV/AIDS traveling from across the South and down the Atlantic coast. And in South Africa, activists from the Treatment Action Campaign (www.tac.org.za) will deliver a letter of support for the South Carolina demands to the US Consulate in Cape Town. "The whole world knows our government is letting us die," said Stephanie Williams of Orangeburg, State Chair for SC-C2EA and another woman living with HIV/AIDS. "Poor people living with AIDS work until they're too sick to work anymore," said Williams. "Parents are dying and old folk are raising their grandkids and great grandkids. This affects whole communities, and we'll all be out together on Monday to pray for an end to it -- and God's going to help us." EVENT SCHEDULE: MONDAY NOVEMBER 20 10 AM: Rally and prayer vigil: Department of Health and Environmental Control (2600 Bull Street) 11 AM: Funeral procession from DHEC to the State Capitol 12 PM: Rally and presentation of demands at State Capitol Photo opportunity: Hundreds of activists, clergy, labor and family members; creative signs, banners, flags and music. South Carolina Campaign to End AIDS (www.c2ea.org/sc) is a statewide grassroots organization of people living with HIV/AIDS and our supporters. Utilizing the voice and experiences of persons living with and affected by HIV/AIDS, we are committed to improving the quality of life of individuals and families both infected and affected by the pandemic and to ending its effects on South Carolina.