A bout of donations supporting Thursday’s Child, a nonprofit New York City organization that serves people living with HIV/AIDS, is helping the organization remain open into the New Year, the New York Daily News reports (nydailynews.com, 12/17).
Thursday’s Child assists about 500 HIV-positive people with rent, utility and food expenses, as well as mental health and substance abuse services. The organization nearly closed last December after Congress didn’t renew its federal funding of $275,000 per year.
“We are thankful to several private donors and also to the Suffolk County Legislature for agreeing to give us $85,000, which is about half of what we asked for, and starts in January of 2008,” said Gregory Noone, program director for the organization. Thursday’s Child also received $25,000 from MAC Cosmetics Global AIDS Fund of New York City and Toronto; Dowling College, Smithtown High School and LGBT Affinity Group of KeySpan/National Grid made food card donations, the Daily News noted.
Noone says that he doesn’t know if the generous support will help keep Thursday’s Child open through the end of 2008.
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Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."
