W.O.M.E.N.'s House

My name is Catherine Wyatt-Morley and I am an African American woman and mother living with AIDS. During the past 15 years living with all that is this disease and working with thousands of women locally, nationally and internationally who are living with HIV and/or AIDS a clear message became noticeable. Women of all backgrounds, cultures and beliefs are seeking holistic sista-to-sista approaches to enhanced health care that encapsulate mind, body and spirit while building self-esteem and empowerment. During my many years of personal reflection and mentoring of other women it had become apparent that a structured environment was needed. W.O.M.E.N.'s HOUSE answers the need for building a research model based in holistic approaches to care for women. W.O.M.E.N.'s HOUSE is designed to be a residential and behavioral research community within the Research, Education and Development Institute (REDI).

My credentials span 15 years during which time I founded and remain Chief Executive Officer of Women On Maintaining Education and Nutrition (W.O.M.E.N.), a 501© 3 non profit community based organization (1996), founder of the National Minority Women With AIDS Coalition and Co-Morbidities (2004), producer of the video Reasons To Live: Women, Their Families and HIV (1996), author of the internationally acclaimed book AIDS Memoir Journal of an HIV Positive Mother, (Kumarian Press, 1997), and Positive People, Combating HIV and AIDS (Trafford Publishing 2006) and founder of W.O.R.T.H., the first HIV positive women's support group in Nashville Tennessee (1994).

I am a woman, whose story is about what it is like to become infected while married (heterosexually), becoming a single mother infected with HIV, the dilemma of church acceptance and/or rejection, minority and family reactions, workplace discrimination including corporate law suits, nutrition and its role in health care choices, and the effects HIV has on children of infected parents. I have been called upon and worked with the United States government (CDC) in many areas of HIV/AIDS focusing on African American women. My international experience includes the stories of Nigerian, Ghanaian, Thailand, and Poland, Canadian, Switzerland, Guyana South America and Trinidadian women. Having recently returned from Georgetown Guyana where meetings were held with the top health officials, it is clear projects such as W.O.M.E.N.'s HOUSE, are needed. As you are well aware the AIDS epidemic is a health crisis for African Americans. Statistics are staggering. At all stages of HIV/AIDS —from infection with HIV to death with AIDS— African Americans are disproportionately affected compared with members of other races and ethnicities.

As founder and Chief Executive Officer of W.O.M.E.N., I have seen to it that the agency's history be steeped in community-based collaborations and research. W.O.M.E.N.'s history reflects focusing on the basic needs of women, education, nutrition and HIV outcomes research methodologies, causes of malnutrition in HIV/AIDS, life management and antiretroviral medications and food-drug interactions for HIV positive women with a focus on African American women. W.O.M.E.N. strongly believes by educating the woman in a family, we in fact educate the entire family, thus reaching the community.

There is a documented gap in the provision of appropriate services for African American women locally and throughout the nation. This is due in large part to the lack of holistic models designed specifically to address the needs of women in general and particularly African American women. W.O.M.E.N.'s HOUSE will address these needs, increase the body of knowledge about African American females living with HIV or AIDS, and develop a model behavioral program that may be replicated in other communities where there is such a need.

I am dedicated to the call on my life and have a deeper understanding of the need for and my place in this research. My history includes over thirteen years of research, intervention design, and assessment. Years of working in economically challenged communities have led me to conclude that W.O.M.E.N.'s HOUSE must concentrate on the development of self-esteem and empowerment of the participants through the widely accepted core vales as identified by Sudarkasa. (footnotes) Sudarkasa identifies these core values or seven "R's" as Respect, Responsibility, Reciprocity, Restraint, Reverence, Reason and Reconciliation.

I know firsthand the complexities of being a mother living with HIV and getting that dreaded news "You have AIDS", given the intersections of rearing children-school, navigating work, doctors, rejection, and other systems that often silence women's care. In light of disproportionate disparities among African American women, with your help, W.O.M.E.N.s HOUSE will take holistic approaches to enhanced health care that encapsulate mind, body and spirit while building self-esteem and empowerment of African American women. Please join us in this undertaking by contributing financially, donating your resources and time and/or linking us to those that will. We are looking to establish longstanding academia and community partnerships as well.

Footnotes:
Sudarkasa, N. The Strength of Our Mothers. African & African American Women & Families: Essays and Speeches. New Jersey: Africa World Press, Inc., 1996.

Sudarkasa, N. A Guide to the Clinical Care of Women with HIV/AIDS
http://hab.hrsa.gov/publications/womencare05/WG05chap8.htm

Sudarkasa, N. A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies
http://www.jendajournal.com/issue5/sudarkasa.htm

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