Image from napwa.org

Today we were saddened to learn that The National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA) has filed for bankruptcy and will no longer continue its grassroots activism on behalf of people living with HIV/AIDS.

NAPWA is heralded as the oldest HIV/AIDS advocacy group lead by people living with HIV/AIDS, and recent numbers estimate their membership at over 1.2 million people.

The organization spearheaded such advocacy mainstays as National HIV Testing Day in 1988 and AIDSWatch, an annual event where people living with HIV/AIDS traveled to DC to discuss treatment, prevention, and the needs of those living with the virus and lobby for policies that improved the quality and quantity of services and programs available. The Gay City News reports that the Treatment Access Expansion Project and AIDS United will continue to lead AIDSWatch.

NAPWA was founded 1983—the same year as New York State’s AIDS Institute—to empower people living with HIV/AIDS to advocate on their own behalf and ensure that their needs were addressed in the crafting and implementation of domestic HIV/AIDS services and programs.

In a press release on its website, NAPWA gives details of their official bankruptcy filing and ends with this positive note: “Keep up the good fight! With or without NAPWA, we can end new HIV infections in our generation. And if we can, we must.”

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OUR MISSION Housing Works is a healing community of people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. Our mission is to end the dual crises of homelessness and AIDS through relentless advocacy, the provision of lifesaving services, and entrepreneurial businesses that sustain our efforts.

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