From the Fall 2016 issue of Community magazine.
I have been fortunate to work for the joint United Nations program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) for the past nine years. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. I have been stationed in Washington, D.C., Johannesburg, South Africa, and now Geneva, Switzerland. I am incredibly lucky working for an organization I believe in, for a cause I believe in, and seeing firsthand the impact global efforts on HIV have had on communities around the world.
Coincidentally, my hometown is Chester, Va., about a 40-minute drive from Caring Voice Coalition (CVC)’s headquarters. My family is still there and I love being home when I can make it.
I admire CVC’s person-centered approach and wish the world saw more of it. CVC champions for those who are struggling or left behind. Each client has a complex series of needs, hopes, dreams and fears. CVC is there to help these individuals on a personal level, treating them not as the disease they live with or a set of statistics, but as people.
Through CVC, I had the sublime privilege of meeting Meghan Sullivan, a young woman who was living with Huntington’s disease, and passed away in 2014 at age 26. She had this irrepressible energy and the fullest smile, all while living with the cruelest disease. And in three hours sharing a dinner conversation with her, I saw more courage than a thousand war heroes. It was humbling to see the face of God in her. CVC has worked with thousands of people like Meghan and remembering that fact drives me to continue my support for CVC.
These challenges are incredibly complex and can feel crushing some or even all of the time. These are challenges you just cannot handle alone. CVC understands that we are all part of a larger community of people and we must work as a team.
Working with CVC, I’ve learned how access to health care continues to be a problem in the U.S., just as it is in many parts of the world. We continue to struggle with expanding and ensuring access to quality health services for all Americans, and we still very often fall short. I see the importance of persistence in trying to serve and help individuals gain access. There will always be those who are left out and left behind. Without CVC and similar services, we have to ask, “Where will people go?”
Stationed in South Africa, I endured a horrible high-speed cycling accident on a mountain road and sustained multiple severe traumas to my face. I spent three weeks in intensive care in Johannesburg and, to date, have had 10 surgeries to repair and restore different parts of my face, with a few procedures yet to come. I am fortunate to have survived and now to thrive three years later. While I don’t dare compare my experience to maintaining a lifelong struggle with a life-threatening disease, I do have a greater appreciation for those contending with health care systems, with the overwhelming upstream navigation of providers and the need to learn to advocate for yourself. Those experiences permeate every detail of your life—not just whether or not I will feel healthy and vital again, but: Am I making the right choices? How will I manage the impact on my work, friends, family, spirituality, confidence, wallet? Where will this end?
Each patient CVC serves represents a story of perseverance. We have an obligation to try and support one another. CVC is a help to so many—we must do what we can to maintain that help.