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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 20, 1996)
ju s t o u t ▼ d ecern bor 2 0 , 1 9 9 0 ▼ 17 WORKING TOGETHER Filling a need Corey Baker of Friends o f People with AIDS finds eager recipients in Mexico for surplus medical supplies ▼ by Inga Sorensen hat began two years ago as a vacation to Guadalajara, Mexico, Portland’s sister city, has trans formed into an ongoing commit ment to assist residents there who are living with AIDS. Not surprisingly, that effort is being led by Corey Baker, founder of the Portland-based Friends of People with AIDS Foundation, a non profit organization that assists people with AIDS with their everyday and emergency needs. During his trip, Baker visited the AIDS ward in the Guadalajara civic hospital and was un nerved by what he witnessed. “It was very clean, but they had absolutely no medical supplies. People were dying on stretchers because there weren’t enough hospital beds,” explains Baker, 65, a retired state employee who established the foundation a few years ago after suffering a heart attack— a dire circumstance that prompted him to take a closer look at his life. Baker ultimately concluded he wanted to help people in need, specifically those living with HIV and AIDS, hence the creation of the Friends of People with AIDS Foundation, which relies on grants and its two annual fund-raisers— a benefit dog walk held each July and an October luncheon auction. The money raised supports a variety of foun dation funds, including a travel fund, which is designed to cover the expenses involved in bring ing family and loved ones to visit those living out their final days; a cremation fund, to help pay for cremation services for people who have died of W AIDS complications; an emergency food fund, which provides emergency food baskets to those in need; a fund geared toward the care of pets owned by people with HIV and AIDS (who may be living on a limited budget); and an entertain ment fund, which allows the organization to spon sor a Thanksgiving dinner, as well as purchase Easter baskets and Christmas toys for children. Over the years Baker has managed to col lect a stock of medical supplies that has gone unused— boxes of diapers, rubber gloves, hospital beds and walkers, and thermometers, to name a few. He says the supplies have piled up because state law prohibits the unused portion of medical supplies, as well as drugs, purchased for a patient who dies, from being passed on to another. “So I have all of this excess,” Baker says. “When I was in Guadalajara I thought, ‘I have lots of supplies back home that are going unused— let’s see if I can get them here.’... I have enough walkers to walk all of China, ” says Baker, stress ing that needy folks in this country who approach the foundation for assistance do not go without. ‘These are supplies that I have lots of, or supplies that can’t be given away,” Baker says, adding he is paying for the Guadalajara project out of his own pocket. Donations, however, are appreciated. “It costs $71 in postage just to send down one computer-box size of supplies, and they really do need so much,” he says. “I mean they have one rickety wheelchair for AIDS patients. In big letters on the back of it they scrawled ‘SIDA’ [AIDS). 1 asked why they did that, and they said if they didn’t, the wheelchair would be taken and used in another ward. When it says ‘SIDA,’ other wards won’t touch it. The doctor didn’t even have a blood pressure cuff. I went out and bought one for him.” Baker says after making his way through the bureaucratic red tape, the Mexican government has given him the OK to ship medical supplies to the hospital, which also plans to send a freight car for him to fill. “We’re hoping to have it filled and returned within the next three months,” he says. Baker also hopes to have his first box of medical supplies sent south by mid-December. ‘That’s my hope,” he says. “Clearly, the sooner the better.” Those who wish to donate money or medical supplies to the Friends o f People with AIDS Foundation may call Baker at 245-7428. Playing for both sides Mexican and U.S. AIDS groups play volleyball over border fence to demonstrate that the virus ignores such boundaries by Rex Wockner COMUSIDA, the Municipal IDS groups from San Diego and AIDS Committee. Tijuana played a game of volleyball The U.S. players brought on Dec. 1, World AIDS Day, using along a theater troupe, and the the infamous border fence as the net. Mexican players brought a rock The novel idea resulted in heavy local mediacoverage of World AIDS Day band. events. Participants on the U.S. side were in Border The volleyball gam e “represent[edj the transmission Field State Park, while the Mexicans played from of HI V/AIDS in this border re Playas de Tijuana (Tijuana Beach), an ocean- gion,” organizers said. front neighborhood known for its bullring. Re Officially, San Diego has mote Border Field State Park sees few visitors: It many more AIDS cases than is unsightly, polluted (by Mexican sewage), open Tijuana, but Tijuana’s numbers only four days a week and accessible only by dirt road. The nearest border crossing point is several are known to be inaccurate. The cities are similar in size, with miles east, so the players could only peer at each over 1.1 million residents each. However, the other through the fence. situation for people infected with HIV is far more The U.S. team was organized by the HI V/STD serious on the Mexican side of the fence. Committee of the Califomia/Baja California Bina “One of our biggest concerns on the Mexican tional Health Council, an arm of the United States- side is that we do not have laws protecting the rights Mexico Border Health Association. The Mexican of people with AIDS,” said OST founder Emilio group was pulled together by the gay-community- Velasquez, who thought up the volleyball gimmick. based Organización SIDA Tijuana (OST) and A “It makes it a disease that is hidden away from epidemio logical reports. The numbers you see on this side of the bor der are not realistic, because people are in hiding and in fear of losing theirjobs and housing. “Discrimination is ram pant,” Velasquez said. “You have to be tested to get a job, to get married, to go to schools. And nobody is doing anything to fight it.... There’s no bud get for AIDS for this whole state, even though we have the highest per capita rate in all of Mexico. The state AIDS office consists of a desk in [the state capital of] Mexicali. That’s it.... The PAN [National Action Party], because of their moral right-wing conservative attitudes, couldn’t care less.” (The PAN is the most conservative of Mexico’s three main political parties and is in power both in Leftover or unneeded AIDS medications can be shipped to Alejandro García, Paseo del Pedregal 1980, Play as de Tijuana, B.C., Mexico, or delivered directly to the clinic on Thursday evenings between 5 pm and 8 pm. It is located at 8324 IOth St., downtown, one and a half blocks east o f Revolution A ve. For more information, phone 011-52-66-80-99-63. HAWAII ,¡^ ¿ 9 ▼ Fdocvers fior addoccasione Committment Ceremonies ▼ Birthdays & Anniversaries ▼ Fdocoers sent discreet T 7815 SE P owell B oulevard 503-775-7334 800-779-0735 Tijuana and Baja California state. The less con servative but more corrupt PRI, Institutional Revo lutionary Party, governs nationally.) A further problem is that few Tijuanans can afford anti-HIV drugs. The current “cocktails” that halt HIV replication cost up to $20,000 a year. For seven years, the gay clinic ACOSIDA has distributed free AIDS drugs that are brought to Tijuana from the bedsides of people who die in San Diego hospitals. But even that pipeline is drying up now that the new protease-inhibitor- based combination therapies have reduced AIDS deaths in San Diego. Wayne Boulette Gateway Express LUXURY PACKAGE INCLUDES FIRST C LA S S AIR— 7 NIGHTS ROYAL of Oregon, Inc. WAIKOLOAN RESORT—OCEAN FRONT ROOM. ALL INCLUSIVE—BREAKFAST 25 SW Jefferson St., Portland LUNCH, DINNER AND UNLIMITED ( 503 ) 242-0088 BAR— MUSTANG CONVERTIBLE Domestic 6f International A n • World Wide Cruises • Hauau Specialist • HITA Agency $21 33 PPDO INC. TAX rate subject to change/restnctions apply 1 -800- 334-1188 • Fax (503) 227-7564