Banquet of a Thousand-and-One Champions

October 15, 2003

On Wednesday, October 15, APICHA will hold a benefit event, Banquet of a Thousand-and-One Champions, at Jing Fong Restaurant, 20 Elizabeth Street in Chinatown (just south of Canal Street). We invite you to join us to honor the commitment, courage and vision of the men and women who have championed the fight against H.I.V./AIDS in the Asian and Pacific Islander community.

The event will begin at 6:30 P.M. One of the highlights of the evening will be the showing of a short video, APICHA IS, our initial attempt to capture the stories behind our struggle. The enclosed DVD is a preview of our story. Fourteen years ago, the impact of H.I.V./AIDS on Asians and Pacific Islanders was unknown. In the eyes of the government, A&PIs were simply "Other." We were the invisible community, along with Native Americans, too small to receive support for services needed to fight the epidemic.

Our community was silent and in denial - until a small group of community activists got together and courageously challenged the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to listen and take action. They succeeded. And out of that success, APICHA was born.

That was fourteen years ago. Since then thousands of others have joined the fight - generously giving their expertise, time and money to build APICHA's life-saving programs.

Because of those efforts, APICHA today offers a continuum of culturally competent, professional H.I.V/AIDS services, including counseling, testing and treatment at our newly opened HIV Primary Care Clinic. All our services are designed to meet the complex needs of our vastly diverse population.

In Asia, 7.2 million people are infected with H.I.V. Here in the U.S., the rate of infection among A&PIs is increasing slowly but steadily, an alarming situation made more serious by A&PIs' tendency to delay access to health care services. As many as 40 to 50 A&PIs are diagnosed with full blown AIDS each year in New York City, recent reports show. Meanwhile, funding for much-needed services is increasingly threatened.

Our work is far from over.

Banquet of a Thousand-and-One Champions will serve to remind us of our great accomplishments and to renew our commitment to the continuing struggle against the epidemic. We hope you will join us on October 15 and give as generously as possible.