Aimed at raising the awareness of HIV/AIDS in the Black community, more than 50 area pastors will take the first step today and get tested at a South Side church.
Rev. Tyrone Crider, pastor of Mt. Calvary Baptist Church, 1259 W. lllth St., and president of the Pastors Network, a group of churches throughout Cook County, teamed with Lloyd Kelly of the Let's Talk, Let's Test Foundation to jumpstart the effort.
"Lloyd came to me to help get more churches involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS. I told him the Network would get involved and we committed to take the test," Crider told the Defender.
According to the Illinois Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control, in 2005 African Americans comprised about 15 per cent of the state's population and accounted for at least 50 percent of the all new HIV infections, and 52 percent of AIDS cases.
The idea for the testing was designed to launch an initiative in Black churches. The goal, Grider said, was to "light a fire."
"We committed to take the test to dramatize the significance of the issue in our community and begin to deal with it in our pulpits," he said.
LTLTF was founded in 2003 by Kelly and state Rep. Constance Howard CD-34).
[Author Affiliation]
by Kathy Chancy
Defender Contributing Writer
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