Jr.
Girl Scouts Ask Congressional Leaders to Support
People Living with HIV
Eleven-year-old
Mariah Crews, a poised sixth grader from Upper Marlboro and
president of Junior Girl Scout Troop 2635 recently read Ryan
White: My Own Story, the autobiography of Ryan White,
one of the country’s earliest and youngest HIV advocates.
So did the other ten members of her troop, who had decided
to read the book as part of a project on HIV.
On Thursday (December 4), AIDS Action will escort the troop
on a visit to Capitol Hill where the girls will present Members
of Congress with copies of Ryan White’s autobiography and
share with the legislators the insights they have drawn from
his moving story.
“Ryan White was a boy who had hemophilia and AIDS and he went
through a lot at school because people took their kids out
of school because they thought AIDS was spread through the
air,” explains Mariah. Yet, rather than allow the illness—and
the ignorance about HIV that was so pervasive in the early
years of the epidemic—to get the better of him, Ryan White
became an outspoken advocate for the rights of those living
with HIV. He raised people’s awareness of the disease and
improved their understanding of how HIV is—and is not—transmitted.
At 19 years-old, Ryan White died from AIDS-related causes,
but his name lives on in the most comprehensive piece of federal
legislation that has ever been created for people living with
HIV: the Ryan White CARE Act.
Enacted in 1990, the Ryan White CARE Act must be reauthorized
every five years. Its next reauthorization will occur in 2005.
This means that discussions about the future of the CARE Act
are already taking place in Congressional and Executive-branch
offices. So, the girls’ trip to Capitol Hill is well-timed.
“I want to tell the people in Congress that nobody should
be treated differently just because they have a disease,”
Mariah stated emphatically. “Everybody should be treated the
same, no matter what.”
The troop is scheduled to arrive on Capitol Hill at
11:30 pm and will assemble outside the office of Maryland’s
Senator Barbara Mikulski (709 Hart Senate Office Building).
The girls will be available for photos Thursday afternoon
at 1:00 p.m. in front of H-306 in the Capitol.
AIDS
Action Foundation strives to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic by
working for public policies that promote prevention against
new infections, provide care for people already living with
HIV/AIDS, and support the search for a cure. AIDS Action is
the national voice of all people living with HIV, representing
community based organizations across the country.
