What is AIDS Education Month?
June 2017 is the 23rd year that Philadelphia FIGHT hosted AIDS Education Month (AEM), a series of events throughout Philadelphia to increase AIDS awareness and to bring people together to find strategies to combat the virus. Over 10,000 individuals are directly reached by AEM every June.
The theme for this year’s AIDS Education Month is “One Community, Recommitting to the FIGHT.” In 2017, we are entering a time of uncertainty within the healthcare field, and we are seeing backlash against the gains in human and civil rights that activists have pushed for through decades of bravery and hard work. However, we refuse to accept any less than equal healthcare for all people. We draw strength by looking to those who laid their careers, their freedom, and their lives on the line in the fight for effective HIV treatments in those early years of the AIDS epidemic, before our medical system and our country knew how to combat the virus and its impacts. We are inspired by activists’ quests to use knowledge as a tool for self-empowerment, and their dogged pursuit of treatment, prevention, and justice.