For Immediate Release:
Contact: Waheedah Shabazz-El: 267 231-2647 or Andrea Lamour Harrington 215 410-4463
Making Herstory. Philly Trans-Activist Andrea Lamour Selected for U.S. Positive Women’s National Steering Committee
Philadelphia, PA: Local transgender
Activist Ms Andrea Lamour Harrington who many may know for taking her show on the road is now taking her activism on the road as a newly selected member of the National Steering Committee for the U.S. Positive Women’s Network (PWN). Andrea represents the second transwoman to be selected to PWN’s national steering body. She will be bringing her talents and spirit of advocacy to a national network of self-identified HIV-positive women that embrace the inclusion of transgender women in order to strengthen our collective power.
The U.S. Positive Women’s Network (PWN) is a project of WORLD (Women Organized to Respond to Life-threatening Disease). PWN was founded by 28 diverse HIV-positive women leaders in June 2008. The mission of the PWN is to prepare and involve HIV-positive women, including transgender women, in all levels of policy and decision-making to improve the quality of women’s lives. Founding members included women born outside the U.S., monolingual Spanish speakers, and transgender women. The women came from diverse background and experiences - rural, southern, and urban, of diverse races and ethnicities, and spanning a spectrum of ages, with the youngest 21 and the oldest 72 years old. Founding members’ common thread: they were all HIV-positive and had a deep desire to create a unified voice and build collective power for HIV-positive women across the United States.
Andrea heard the call and joined the local PWN-Philly chapter in 2009. “This is an exciting opportunity not only for me but for transwomen across the United States. We have come a long way but we still have far to go in having our needs met, said Andrea L. Harrington who is currently employed at the COLOURS Organization. “As trans women we are more vulnerable to HIV than any other gender, and we have specific needs that relate to HIV prevention and care. Yet we are often invisible even when it comes to data collection about the epidemic. I am happy to serve on the PWN National Steering Committee because in order to make things happen we have to become a part of the larger conversations. Working together as a network of positive women strengthens all of us.”
Andrea will meet up with PWN Founders, Advisory Board and Steering Committee Members next month in Denver, Colorado. There she will begin her newest journey as a national representative of over 300,000 women living with HIV in the U.S. But she will not go alone. She will be joined by PWN founding/advisory member Waheedah Shabazz-El, and activist Teresa Sullivan, who has served on the PWN National Steering Committee since June 2010. Both Teresa and Waheedah are long time employees at Philadelphia FIGHT. “We embrace the strength that comes through our diversity. That’s how we win, said Shabazz-El who is also the coordinator of the local PWN-Philly Chapter, which has trained over 100 women living with HIV to be active as local leaders role models and mentors.
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Who we are: The U.S. Positive Women’s Network (PWN) is a project of WORLD (Women Organized to Respond to Life Threatening Diseases) in Oakland, CA. We are a national membership body that exists to strengthen the strategic power of women living with HIV in the United States. For more information please visit: www.pwn-usa.org www.pwn-philly@blogspot.com
