World AIDS Day 2009 - the front line
The de facto frontline of HIV work lies in urban centers where teachers, preachers, and outreach workers are battling social context everyday. Last year, on this day, I was speaking about HIV in a church in Atlanta. This year I will be speaking about HIV with the youth of City Year in Washington, D.C. In both instances, the front line is the audience.
This is the same audience I have been listening to for the past two years since the release of All of Us as well as the audience that continues to find me through my work. From Addis Ababa, to D.C., to New York, to Philly, to Los Angeles, I have been inspired by the many emails I have received from front line workers. So first and foremost, I want to say - I hear you and I am with you!
In preparing my comments for the good people of City Year I thought it would be a good idea to check in. I know I have been neglecting the blog - but trust I have been busy in D.C. 
The theme of World AIDS Day 2009 is Universal Access and Human rights. Both issues are about the front line. Human rights hinges on three principles: indivisibility, agency, and accountability. All three are also important for innovation.
I think the next wave of HIV front line work must focus on innovation. This is the message I will bring to the good people of City Year. I have been blown away by TruthAIDS volunteers that have devoted their creative energy and time to help push front line work along and I believe that are many more innovators out there who want to get involved.
So what is innovation about anyhow? According to John Kao, the author of “Innovation Nation”, innovation is “applying work ethic to a dream.” I love this definition and I think it applies directly to front line work. The teachers, preachers, and outreach workers in urban centers are working everyday to make the dream of a better America a reality. Health equity is central to a vision of a better America. The distribution of health matters for the opportunities available to the citizenry.
In closing, on World AIDS Day 2009, I salute all front line workers and encourage all nascent innovators to join the front line. Aint nothing like it.
I am an Ethiopian- American public health physician that is using oral histories to teach about health. I have been listening to stories as a public health practitioner for a long time and as a physician for the past six years. In medicine, there is a true moral compass that points north. These stories are meant only to serve the patient. This blog is my attempt at documenting the stories that have the potential to teach how to heal for us all.
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