Greetings!  

Welcome to July and our e-newsletter!  This month, we feature two stories about the people we proudly serve at THP.  Our clients teach us and inspire us everyday, in spite of  the many challenges they often face.  Your support of THP is changing lives everyday - thank you for standing with us!

Our Mission

We will stand together for as long as it takes until HIV/AIDS is no more, working together to promote enlightenment, dignity, acceptance, understanding, and love, demonstrating that we are not only enduring this epidemic, but prevailing over it.

37% of THP's funding comes from individuals just like you.  Now more than ever, your gifts play a tremendous part in helping THP fulfill its mission.  When you contribute to THP in any amount, you stand with us in the fight, and you stand up for everyone we serve.  

Thank You!

In June, Higher Ground, THP's day activity center for people living with HIV/AIDS, took several THP clients to the annual HIV/AIDS retreat held at Kanuga, an Episcopal retreat center in the North Carolina mountains.  In his own words, Mark Cassity, Director of Higher Ground, shares some insights from the experience.

Retreat:  "To withdraw with a purpose."

After months of preparation and our self-imposed protocol for attendance, Higher Ground assisted some two dozen clients toward the 20th annual HIV/AIDS retreat a few weeks ago.  We also took three staff members to assist at the retreat itself, plus five facilitators/therapists who freely gave of their gifts to all 250 retreatants on site.  There was peace; there was also spiritual community and spiritual solitude, not to mention lakes and trails and quiet cottages and reunions and laughter and hugs and liturgical services by the lake and in the chapel; there was art and dance and reiki and meditation practice; there was fishing and lounging and boating.  All things good and lovely but at the end of the day it was the lack of one thing that was the most striking.

Worry.

It was impossible to find someone worrying.  Imagine, months or years of looking over your shoulder (who's talking about me?;  who's going to find out I'm positive?; my church and my family don't even know; where will I sleep?; is anything at all in the fridge?...) and then suddenly everything is cared for.  You are held.  You are free.  One of the finest images I gained from our retreat this year is that of J. - a man whose t-cell count is next to zero, who lives in a shelter without electricity and who spends his days collecting aluminum cans in giant black plastic sacks - who returned from a lunch buffet with two sandwiches on his plate, each easily five-inches tall, the sides bulging with meats and cheeses.  He was still sitting at the table when his companions had left and he ordered more fried chicken.  Then more again.  And maybe more after that, but I had to leave by that time.  "After deprivation comes plenty," they tell us; this was borne out again and again across the retreat site.  Those who knew hunger ate mountains of food; those who knew despair laughed the most uproariously; those who knew fatigue rested...and rested.

Which reminds me - very late one morning, I noticed I hadn't seen one of our clients, M., all day and wanted to ask him to assist another Spanish-speaking retreatant.  I left the communal service to look for him by the lake, in the lobby, deck, porches...no M.  I finally went to his cottage and, to my later dismay, I woke him up.  It dawned on me that he has been months without a bed or bath of his own.  His retreat was right there, in safety and pillows and cool cleanliness.  He was healing in the way he needed to heal.  He laughed at my worried expression from his plainly luxurious sheets and blankets.  

In no time, the retreat fades into distant memory.  We are back to pains and stigma and hospitals and fatigue.  But it is an amazing thing that we have a constant space of retreat right here - Higher Ground.  Every day in this house we "withdraw with a purpose" and hopefully nourish one another for the trials beyond these doors.

 - Mark Cassity

Kanuga Outdoor Chapel

Women's Group - Building Community and Family

THP provides a variety of services to clients living with HIV/AIDS, including programs that foster emotional and spiritual well-being.  Among these is a women's group facilitated by THP Case Managers, Allyson Clark and Ellen McAngus.  Here, Allyson and Ellen reflect on their journey with these inspiring ladies over the past year.

The women's group has been a unique and wonderful experience this year!  The group started last September and runs in 8 week cycles, with the most recent cycle finishing up this past week.  In the past, it has been difficult to keep women's groups going for several reasons, but this group has really grown and flourished.  Women's group has become a place for HIV-positive women to bring their problems, successes, questions, and concerns to other women who have had similar experiences.  Over the weeks of sharing in community, these women have truly become a family.  Each woman has a different story and life experience, and each one brings something new, interesting, and equally important to the group. 

Since starting the group, we have worked to create an environment of support and family to women who could not talk about their HIV-positive status anywhere else.  Each group meeting is a small victory as the women begin to understand the importance of taking medicine, learn about disclosing their status when appropriate, and even learn how to get parole curfews extended!  

This year, we had the privilege of being invited to a presentation sponsored by some of the leading drug companies.  It gave everyone a chance to dress up, be served a nice dinner at a beautiful local hotel and restaurant, and hear other HIV-positive women share from their journeys and battle with HIV/AIDS.  For most of these women, it was an unforgettable experience that took them outside their daily norms, and really helped them feel and know they are special and valued.

At the end of the group meetings, we have a ritual of reading together an excerpt from Maya Angelou's "Phenomenal Woman".  Truly, all of the women in this group are phenomenal!  As the group came to a close last week, the one thing on everyone's mind and heart was, "when can we start this again?".  

A HUGE Thank You to everyone who has supported our Designers Care event over the past 5 years!  This year's event raised over $27,000 in vital funding for THP.  These funds will help to pay for case management and client services for over 500 Guilford County residents living with HIV/AIDS, and help us reach an estimated over 2,000 people this year through our prevention testing and education programs.

We are incredibly grateful for the kindness and generosity of our sponsors, for all of the companies and individuals who donated merchandise to the sale and, of course, for all of our THP friends who came out to find incredible deals on terrific merchandise, knowing that 100% of the proceeds directly benefit the mission and work of THP.

 PREMIER SPONSORS: