local HIV Prevention Center needs $$

From Jane Elven:
Because I know that you're a kindred spirit—that you truly care about people who's lives are more painful than most of us can imagine, I want to share the following letter that we received from "Betty" (not her real name), one of the women with whom we work at Planned Parenthood's HIV Prevention Outreach Center in Kingston. I must admit that I'm sharing this with you because I want to make sure that the work we do with people like Betty can continue. The New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute funds this project, and has reduced our budget 19.6% in the last two months. And, the cuts are retroactive, so that the 19.6% will have to come from the grant money we have not yet spent, which really means that we have to cut 39.2% from the remaining funds. Thus we'll need to somehow provide the next six months of services with nearly 40% less money. To do this we'll not only have to cut staff (there are only two full time and one part time staff now), reduce the number of days we're open to help people, and for the next six months purchase absolutely no supplies—not even condoms.

I'm not at all clear how to do effective HIV prevention without condoms, so I'm asking everyone I know for help. We need at least $10,000 to keep the doors open part time. $20,000 will let us continue to offer our vulnerable population the level of services we've provided for the last four and a half years. This means if 10 people donate $1,000 we could limp along (with fewer hours but at least we could give out condoms), and if 20 people do that, we could keep-on-keeping-on at full speed. Or, maybe 100 to 200 people could give us $100, or 200 to 400 people $50, or 400 to 800 $25, or any combination of the above. In these disastrous economic times it might feel good to know that even very small donations—$10, $5, $1—taken together can do so much for so many of our people who could soon have even less than the little they had a month ago.

If you're able to help please send a check as soon as you can, made out to Planned Parenthood. To make sure that the money goes to this project, please write "HIV Prevention Project" on the memo line . Then mail it to Planned Parenthood, 178 Church Street, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601. Because we need a lot of people to help a little, please feel free to forward this widely and wildly!

I know the letter below is a little long. And, even if you're not able to donate anything now, I do hope that you'll take the time to read it—simply because it's likely to warm your heart and give you hope not only for women like Betty, but for all of us.

From my heart to yours, thank you on behalf of those we serve.

Jane Elven