TIHAN has currently trained 2 parishioners and 3 staff members to begin establishing a greater awareness of HIV/AIDS in our parish.  Those who have been currently trained are: Fr. Bill Remmel, SDS, Donna Hudgel, Pat O'Brien, Sara Lisa, and Leo Guardado.  

If HIV/AIDS ministry is something that you feel called to work in, please let us know and we will arrange a training.  

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact the parish or visit: www.tihan.org

TIHAN's mission:
We of the Tucson Interfaith HIV/AIDS Network offer our hearts and hands to provide compassionate and non-judgmental service to those affected by HIV/AIDS.  Through education and support, we—as individuals and faith communities—work to build bridges, reduce stigma and sustain hope.

We invite the religious community to join us in an informed, sensitive and compassionate response to those affected by HIV/AIDS. We are called to care through education, service and advocacy:

• working within our faith communities to promote education and prevention of HIV/AIDS
• educating clergy and laity in offering support to those affected by HIV/AIDS
• assuring the availability of spiritual care, respecting each individual's faith and tradition
• advocating in the community for those affected by HIV/AIDS

2011 marks the 30th anniversary of the first reported deaths due to AIDS complications in 1981.  Below is a beautiful reflection by TIHAN's founder:

It was 30 years ago today. Do you remember it?

June 5, 1981. A 522-word article reporting that five gay men in their 20s and 30s in Los Angeles had died from a mysterious disease. It was a sign of things to come, the beginning of a pandemic that would become known as AIDS.

That article, published 30 years ago today in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, hinted at a disease that would, in the following 30 years, infect 60 million people and kill more than 25 million children and adults. It would devastate the people in sub-Saharan Africa. It would change the way we look at sex and practice sex. It would ignite a movement of empowerment for the LGBT community. It would catalyze fear and discrimination and hate. It would inspire acts of care and compassion, as well as medical research and advancements.

30 years, and yet still no cure. 30 years, and the stigma continues to contribute to the spread of the disease.

Throughout the past 30 years, a movement for care, education, justice, and compassion emerged. There have been heroes in this fight, courageous people who have showed us the way. Public figures who helped us address the stigma--Rock Hudson, Ryan White, Magic Johnson, and Elizabeth Taylor. Scientists and public health officials who helped us learn and respond. Doctors and nurses and social workers and hospice providers and civil rights lawyers who cared for communities and cared for individuals. Community-based groups--including TIHAN--that formed to provide systems of care and support for those in need. And, most importantly, millions of people living with HIV, sharing their heroic struggles and challenges and triumphs.

I have 30 years of memories. Some memories bring pain and sadness, thoughts of loved ones lost, and failures of leaders at all levels. Other memories bring smiles and an acknowledgement of miracles of life, and medical developments that continue to provide hope.

My life has been deeply touched by HIV--by the lives of too many friends, lovers, and family members who I have lost because of this disease. And I have been touched too in witnessing the response of caring people who have joined the fight to provide awareness, education, care and support. I have seen the people of TIHAN and our faith communities step forward and provide simple acts of heroism through 17 years of responding.

Let this 30-year milestone serve as a time of reflection, and a time of a renewed commitment. Please consider offering your time as a volunteer to educate or extend a hand to someone in need.  Please consider making a donation in memory or in honor of someone who has touched your life over the past 30 years. And please say a prayer that we, the people of 2011, will join together and do what all our great religious traditions call us to do: care for those who are suffering, bind up the broken-hearted, and love our neighbor as ourselves.

Scott Blades
Executive Director
Tucson Interfaith HIV/AIDS Network (TIHAN)
www.tihan.org 
Click here for a New York Times article on the 30th year of the discovery of HIV