Looking back on World AIDS Day 2019

The team here at the Ryan White Wellness Center takes a leadership role each year alongside SHAPE Sexual Health STD Prevention & Education (and in partnership with organizations such as Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA), Palmetto Community Care and various healthcare partners) to commemorate the sacrifice and lives lost to AIDS in the early days, while also celebrating the healthcare advances helping our community today.

Our annual candlelight vigil brought together patients, families, staff from our organizations and caring members of the Charleston community for an evening of remembrance, reflection and song at the Unitarian Church of Charleston. The moving ceremony allowed us to commemorate loved ones by name, and brief remarks from community members living with HIV/AIDS brought a sense of hope and progress.

We were honored to include a special event this year in honor of World AIDS Day. We hosted a free screening of the groundbreaking documentary film 5B at the Terrace Theater. The “sold out” event included a Q&A with members of our team, free snacks, and a space for the community to gather and reflect together on the early days of patient care. From the film’s description:

5B is the inspirational story of everyday heroes who took extraordinary action to comfort, protect and care for the patients of the first HIV/AIDS ward unit in the United States at San Francisco General Hospital. 5B is stirringly told through first-person testimony of the nurses and caregivers who built Ward 5B in 1983, their patients, loved ones, and staff who volunteered to create care practices based in humanity and holistic well-being during a time of great uncertainty.