Today was a surprise appearance by Radia Hunter. She is back full-time at Rotary now after a 1 year hiatus :-). She kicked it off by presenting her 3 things that impacted her life.
  1. She said she was in Belgium for few years with her sister and she learnt French during her time there. That was an exciting experience for her.
  2. Then she joined Rotary many years ago and was introduced to Richard Fogg, who was a Rotarian. In due course he gave her a job at his firm and she grew into a partner role there and very soon she will be able to acquire the entire business from Richard. She also said that George & Lou Sousa inspired her a lot and she enjoyed every community project at Rotary.
  3. Finally her engagement to Sean Hunter was a life-changing event. Sean called her one day and said he found a great deal to fly to Belgium and had to leave in few days. He took her to Bruges in Belgium and proposed on a boat ride. She said YES! Apparently Sean surprised her by inviting 6 of her old friends. It was the most memorable event of her life.
 
And then we had another big surprise news from Molly Fleming! She and her husband Tim adopted a brand new baby born on Dec 23, 2018! A baby girl named Riley Galwin. CONGRATULATIONS to Molly & Tim.
 
Herb gave a quick update on some of the District and Global grant projects.
 
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"Strengthening the Women, Children and Families' Health impacted by HIV/AIDS" by Sara Duran
Ali Freedman is the interim Executive Director at Christie's Place, a community-based non-profit organization in San Diego, California. Since she could not attend, her Program Manager Sara Duncan gave a nice presentation about the history and activities of Christie's Place. Sara Durán, has a degree in MPH and she coordinates outreach, education, empowerment, and advocacy services for women, children, and families impacted by HIV. Ms. Durán is a Certified Health Education Specialist who has developed and implemented trauma-informed programming at Christie’s Place focused on health education, access, and retention for women living with HIV and their family members. In addition to a variety of local presentations, she has presented to national audiences on trauma-informed service provision in HIV service settings.
 
Christie’s Place is dedicated to the memory of Christie Milton-Torres. Christie dreamed that one day there would be a haven for women and families living with HIV.  At age 20 Christie was diagnosed with HIV.  During the late 1980s and early 1990s Christie was a tireless advocate for the needs of women and children.  In 1994 Christie died due to complications from AIDS.  Christie’s legacy lives on as the agency transforms lives by providing comprehensive education, advocacy and social services to women, children and families.
 
She said that at the end of 2016 almost 1.1 million people were living with HIV infection in the U.S. Unfortunately, only 25% of those were virally suppressed. Sara indicated that as long as the patients take their meds they cannot transmit the disease. Christie was the 1st woman in to highlight the HIV issue and take some action to provide relief to those infected in San Diego.
 
 
They identified that there was a big link between trauma and HIV. Christie has many peer navigators (PNs) that help HIV patients to navigate the health insurance maze. one such PN is Martha at Christie's, who helps patients with HIV. She is very effective because she herself is an HIV patient and so other patients relate to her very well.
 
 
Sara mentioned that there are many regimens to the medication process. Some are 1 pill a day program and very easy for patients to follow the program. The CHANGE (Coordinated HIV Assistance and Navigation for Growth and Empowerment) for Women program serves low-income women living with HIV throughout all of San Diego County whether they are entering medical care, have fallen out of care or are at risk of falling out of care. It improves the utilization of medical care and treatment and strengthens the healthcare and social services systems through strategic alliances and implementation of a peer navigation service model. She said it is always good to add the HIV blood test to routine blood tests during annual checkups. Sara added that the common symptoms are bad flu, pneumonia, etc. It seems many can live over 10 years with no symptoms.
 
There were 2 other board members that attended the event along with Sara -- Laurie Stewart and Renee Sievert. They provided additional information about Christie's fund-raising events and invited our members to a future event that they hold at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. Laurie will send details about this event.
 
 
In the end DMSB Club President Ken Barrett presented the speaker with the Joshua certificate that represents our club DMSB donating school supplies to schools in Malawi in the name of the speaker.
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