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Help End HIV/AIDS In Our Lifetime with AIDS Walk Los Angeles and APLA Health
From Stonewall to ACT UP, LGBTQ+ people have a history of taking to the streets to change the world. This fall, there is an opportunity to pound the pavement in support of APLA Health as they work to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in our lifetime.
AIDS Walk Los Angeles will take place this year on Oct. 20. The world’s first walk to fight AIDS was first held in Los Angeles 35 years ago, and the event has raised more than $88 million since then to fuel APLA Health’s prevention, care and advocacy programs.
“Where I’m from in Barstow, they have very little services for HIV patients,” said Jodee Fauxe, a 26-year-old transgender woman and client at APLA Health. “Honestly, since coming to LA and working with APLA, I think really that’s how I became undetectable.”
Fauxe is just one of the 18,000 people APLA Health (formerly AIDS Project Los Angeles) provides services to each year. Sixty-five percent of those clients identify as LGBTQ, and 73 percent are from communities of color.
The annual AIDS Walk Los Angeles is a vital part of APLA Health’s mission. The yearly event helps support HIV testing, STD screening, primary medical care, dental services, behavioral health services, one-on-one counseling, group counseling, HIV prevention (including PrEP and PEP counseling and management), educational outreach on U=U, insurance enrollment and advocacy.
In addition to the incredible healthcare they provide for the people in their communities, APLA Health also offers additional services to encourage overall wellness for clients living with HIV/AIDS. AIDS Walk LA also supports the Vance North Necessities of Life Food Pantry, nutrition counseling, financial literacy programs, home health care, benefits counseling and housing support.
For clients like Fauxe, those additional services can save lives.
“I’d been on hormones, but got them illegally, injecting with god knows what,” she said while discussing working with her doctor at APLA Health. “He was like, ‘Look, we don’t want you to do that again, there’s a right way to do this;’ he definitely led me to the right direction, and I love him.”
You can support APLA Health as they continue to provide life-saving services to clients like Fauxe at this year’s AIDS Walk Los Angeles Oct. 20. Located in downtown LA, the event is now even easier to attend and participate in.
You can register for AIDS Walk LA here and support the more than 60,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Los Angeles. Visit aplahealth.org to learn more about APLA Health.
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