Health/Science

PUBLISHED MON, JUL 20, 2009 04:58 AM

MODIFIED TUE, SEP 22, 2009 07:36 AM

AIDS effort has link to home

BY JENNIFER KLAHRE - STAFF WRITER
Tags: news | nation_world | health_science

As a teenager in Africa, Carine Siltz watched helplessly as AIDS ravaged her father's bedridden body, turning him
into a virtual skeleton and causing painful skin rashes and hair loss in the year it took him to die.

For the next eight years, she lived in fear the disease would next claim her mother and was traumatized when that
nightmare came true. Before she turned 22, both parents were dead, struck down by the HIV virus that was all too
common in her home country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Instead of giving up hope, Siltz turned this bitter experience into a life's calling. She founded African Advocates
Against AIDS (AAAA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading the message of HIV prevention in the Triangle.

"I saw with my own eyes how the virus devastated the human body," Siltz, 34, said. "It motivated me to let people
know the facts to prevent it."

But there's a unique twist to Siltz's approach -- she tailors her presentation of the health risks related to AIDS to the
cultural traditions and rituals she learned in Africa.

For example, the tradition of tattooing designs on a woman's face to enhance her beauty and honoring the dead by
shaving the heads of the living with the same razor aren't viewed as health risks by some African tribes and ethnic
groups that hold them dear.

But Siltz uses these traditions to show how sharing razors and needles can be fatal, and does so without passing
judgment on the tradition or ritual.

"We give the facts through a culturally appropriate approach, because HIV doesn't discriminate," Siltz said. "We don't
want them to stop their traditions. Just take more precautions, including not sharing tools with many people."

Amie Drammeh supports Siltz's mission. She talks to clients about HIV prevention while styling their hair at African
Nubian Queen salon in Raleigh.

"It's not just about sex," said Drammeh, who has seen the ravages of AIDS while working as a volunteer for the Red
Cross in Gambia. "They use the same blade or scissors or sewing needle on different people."

Siltz cites another example of a cultural tradition colliding with the standard doctrine of AIDS prevention. In some
western African communities, it is still acceptable for a man to have multiple wives -- a practice that can also be found
in other parts of the globe. This tradition runs counter to the prevention message of avoiding multiple sex partners.
But Siltz uses this as a talking point, an example of why it is important to exercise caution and practice abstinence.

New home, new project

After studying journalism, communication and public relations at a university in Africa, Siltz moved to North Carolina
in 2000 to escape the civil war in her country. She began the grassroots organization in her own home and slowly
gained supporters.

Siltz quickly learned English and began tailoring her AIDS prevention message to African emigrés living in the
Triangle. An estimated 34,605 people living in North Carolina in 2007 were born in Africa, according to the U.S.
Census Bureau.

She also hopes her culturally tailored message will strike a chord with the U.S.-born black community, which has a
rate of HIV infection more than seven times higher than that of whites, according to the N.C. Department of Health
and Human Services.

Statistics like this emphasize the importance of Siltz's work. According to a DHHS report on sexually transmitted
diseases for 2008, the number of North Carolinians infected by the HIV virus has been steadily increasing since
2003. The 16,858 reported cases of HIV in the state in 2004 grew to 21,593 in 2007, a 28 percent increase.

Getting the word out

AAAA is supported by a mix of state and federal money. Siltz received $53,000 from the Office of Minority Health and
Health Disparity of the DHHS in a three-year community outreach contract that will end in 2010. The group also
received a $20,000 grant from the Office on Women's Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
in a contract that also ends next year.

Siltz has used this money to print fliers and brochures on AIDS prevention, hold public forums and create programs
that target women and children.

Nadine Kiese Diomi of Raleigh passes out AAAA brochures at her French fashion boutique on Capital Boulevard.

"I think it's quite important what she's doing," Diomi said. "We needed something like that here. We have a lot of
African people around that need to be educated about the disease."

Siltz's group also started a show last year that airs on RTN10 Community Television.

"One of my sisters died of AIDS," said Mali Francois of Congo, who produces the show. "I think the show is a good
thing because a lot people watch TV, so we can reach many."

Memory is motivation

The memory of her parents and the disease that killed them still motivates Siltz.

"I'm very focused because of everything I've been through," she said. "After crying every day, I realized that right now
is not the time to cry anymore."

She says it doesn't take a degree in medicine to join the fight against AIDS.

"You don't have to be a doctor to save someone's life," she said.

jklahre@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4633