Lina Ali, a Tanzanian immigrant with AIDS, arrives
Wednesday at Renton Technical College to register for classes. Ali has come to
rely on the Babes Network.
Photo Credit:
Joshua Trujillo/Seattle Post-Intelligencer Babes Network dedicated to helping women with HIV
Seattle agency offers support, comfort to those afflicted with virus
By
JULIE DAVIDOW - SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Lina Ali isn't alone in the United States.
The 36-year-old student lives with her sister and
has made friends from her native Tanzania.
But other African immigrants don't want to talk
about a man from Tanzania she met while living in Los Angeles, a man who raped
her and later died of AIDS.
They don't want to discuss her HIV status -- she
tested positive in 1995 and has had AIDS for two years -- or the
often-debilitating medications she relies on to stave off the disease's
progression.
"Nobody talks about it," said Ali. "It's a kind of
hidden thing."
Instead, Ali has come to rely on the women at the
Babes Network, a 16-year-old Seattle agency devoted to supporting women with
HIV and AIDS.
"I wanted to be somewhere where I could talk about
what I'm going through," Ali said. "Babes is my lifesaver."
Pat Migliore remembers when Babes saved her life.
After attending other support groups where she was the only woman present, she
met with a small group of HIV-positive women at a friend's house in 1987.
"The women always felt like we needed our own place
to be," said Migliore, 53. "We had some unique issues."
Some of the women were mothers. Some worried they'd
never have sex again. Those who were single thought they'd be alone forever.
They quickly outgrew the potluck sessions. In 1989,
their newly formed Babes Network applied for a grant through Northwest Family
Services. Three years later, it became an independent non-profit organization.
Migliore, who is now a member of the Babes'
advisory board, said the organization was always intended to be a place where
women with HIV supported other women with HIV.
Today, about 285 women take advantage of Babes'
services, including support group meetings, picnics and peer counseling. With
the exception of program manager Sarah Benton, the women who work at Babes are
all HIV-positive.
"We're basically just like each other's friends,"
said Nicole Price, a peer counselor who runs the new co-ed, heterosexual
support group.
Babes' office is located on the first floor of an
undistinguished building in Yesler Terrace. It's modest, but homey, with a room
full of donated clothes women can choose from, a computer for research and
another room where a handful of women with HIV and AIDS meet twice a week.
In March, funding concerns forced Babes to give up
its independent non-profit status and become part of the YWCA of Seattle-King
County-Snohomish County.
Migliore said the transition to a larger
organization means security for Babes and a seamless transition for its
members.
"They wanted to ensure that Babes would continue
indefinitely," Benton said.
In King County, 5,808 people have HIV or AIDS and
about 10 percent of those are women. Although the number of women with HIV and
AIDS is small, it's growing faster than other categories.
And African-born immigrant women are among the most
vulnerable to new infections, said Gary Goldbaum, an epidemiologist at Public
Health -- Seattle & King County.
"They're coming from parts of Africa where HIV is
rampant," said Goldbaum. "We're concerned that foreign-born blacks, especially
among the women, are at potentially increased risk."
That doesn't surprise Ali, who said a lack of access
to HIV and AIDS drugs in Africa, a persistent cultural stigma and concerns
about seeking medical care without legal immigration status keeps many African
immigrants from getting tested or talking about their HIV status.
At 14, sitting in her living room in Zanzibar, an
island off of Tanzania where she grew up, Ali told her brother she planned to
help people by becoming a doctor.
He laughed. Are you crazy? Doctors don't make any
money in Tanzania. Plus, women aren't doctors.
Ali was undeterred.
She finished a four-year advanced degree in
clinical medicine in Tanzania despite being sexually assaulted by a male
professor and belittled by the others.
Her family hoped coming to the United States would
make it easier for her to get an education. But her dream of becoming a doctor
fell apart with her diagnosis, said Ali.
"I have been going on and off to school, but I
haven't really decided what I want to do ever since," said Ali, who registered
for her third semester at Renton Technical College on Wednesday. She's studying
to be a certified office professional, but keeping a full-time job is hard.
After her health declined, she quit a job as a home health aide. Since then,
she's struggled with depression, severe fatigue and the side effects of her
medications.
But she still wants to help.
As a member of the King County HIV/AIDS Planning
Council and a volunteer at Babes, Ali hopes to slowly spread the message among
other immigrant women that medical assistance and confidential support is
available. "I'm kind of trying to be out," said Ali, referring to her HIV
status. "I want to use myself as an example just to help. I can't make the
major big changes because my health is deteriorating, but I can make the little
differences."
LEARN MORE
For more information about support groups and other
services offered at the Babes Network - YWCA, call 206- 720-5566 or go to
www.babesnetwork.org. P-I reporter
Julie Davidow can be reached at 206-448-8180 or
juliedavidow@seattlepi.com.
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