It’s a typical day after work. It’s getting dark and you can’t wait to get home. As you’re quickly walking toward the entrance to the Roosevelt el station, you notice a group of people handing out fliers, asking questions to the people hustling and bustling by. You think “Great…I don’t have time to listen to these people and frankly, I don’t care.” You try rushing through the crowd, but then someone smiles at you and with one quick question—“Sister, are you protected?”—stops you dead in your tracks.

Before your mind fully registers the question, you’re handed a brochure on safe sex and HIV/AIDS. You want to keep walking and catch your train; after all, you practice safe sex. However, the sincerity and urgency in the voice of the person standing before you strikes a mental alarm. You pause to listen.

The brave souls who stand in 20-degree temperatures to face the blank stares of passersby are determined to make a difference. The Chicago Health Corps (CHC) volunteers are well-educated on the statistics of HIV/AIDS transmission rates, rates that are on the rise in the world, the United States, and Chicago.

“After I got involved in the HIV training programs, I found out how bad it really was,” says CHC volunteer Stephanie Hutchinson. “People don’t realize it’s someone living on your street or some young person in school that’s getting infected. I had to do something.” By making contacts and sending out mass emails, Hutchinson got other CHC and Americorps (which is the parent organization of CHC) volunteers involved.

Another volunteer, Chinuotu Omenazu, also agreed to brave the cold weather. “People tend to bypass billboards and magazine articles,” explains Omenazu. “It isn’t until you put it in their face that they take notice. It was surprising to me to see the shock on their faces when they heard the statistics”.

And these statistics are startling. About 42 million people across the world have the HIV virus. 12,000 more are infected every day—six every minute. Even more frightening is the recent New York Times article revealing that a new strain of a drug-resistant AIDS virus has emerged in New York City.

In the United States alone, an estimated 886,575 AIDS cases were diagnosed between the beginning of the epidemic and 2002. Even more disturbingly, an estimated quarter of those infected don’t even know it. Yet the scope of the disease is often ignored; it’s possible to deny something that is not seemingly visible. It is because of widespread denial that AIDS is once again on the rise in the United States—and that medical officials are bracing themselves for a worst-case epidemic scenario.

This high level of denial is also one of the main reasons that CHC volunteers realize they can’t wait any longer. “People think it’s a gay white [man’s] disease…that someone who is promiscuous gets it,” says Omenazu. However, reality paints a different picture. Approximately 70% of the AIDS cases in the state of Illinois are in the city of Chicago, with 1,000 new cases of HIV confirmed every year. Illinois has one of the highest totals of AIDS diagnoses; it is among the top ten states. In Chicago, people of color represent 81% of recently diagnosed AIDS cases and 77% of recently diagnosed HIV cases. In the United States, people of color represent 54% of all AIDS cases. Overall, women of color and the 25-44 age group are the fastest growing demographic groups of AIDS cases.

Given these statistics, one would hope the American government would be waging an all-out war against AIDS.  Instead, Bush has proposed cuts in funding to many of the HIV/AIDS support and prevention programs. “I think the lack of HIV/AIDS prevention has to do with do with economics,” Hutchinson says. “It isn’t in their best interest money-wise to have programs in lower socio-economic populations because the profit margin would be low.  Also, if it’s not the constituents of the powerful who are voting, then it gets overlooked.”

Seijoung Kim, the director at CHC, wants to expand the program, but explains that the funding is simply unavailable. “Even if the government decides to fund us, they only give us 60% of total cost and we have to get the rest out of pocket, so it’s very hard to reach our goals without volunteers,” Kim says.

Marisela Mirelez, team leader for CHC, explained that “The problem is we’re not getting enough funding to go out into the communities that really need prevention based programs.  That’s why our volunteers are so great.  Our motto for AmeriCorps is ‘Getting things done’.”

To get find out more about the CHC, visit AmeriCorps.org or contact Seijoung Kim at 773/413-0068.