HOUSING WORKS ANNOUNCES RECIPIENTS OF FOURTH-ANNUAL KEITH D. CYLAR AIDS ACTIVIST AWARDS

$25,000 in grants given to HIV-positive activists; gala benefit slated for April 17, 2008

New York, NY--Housing Works is proud to announce the recipients of its fourth-annual Keith D. Cylar AIDS Activist Awards. The awardees will be honored at a gala benefit on Thursday, April 17, at 6pm, at the Times Center (242 W.41st Street).

The 2008 Keith D. Cylar AIDS Activist Award recipients are:

Esther Boucicault, founder and director of the Fondation Esther Boucicault Stanislas (FEBS), St. Marc, Haiti. International AIDS Activist Award; $10,000 grant

Gloria Gonzalez, AIDS activist, Fajardo, Puerto Rico. U.S. AIDS Activist Award; $10,000 grant

Diane Williams, AIDS activist, Housing Works, New York City. Housing Works AIDS Activist Award; $5,000 grant

Asia Russell, Director of International Advocacy, and Paul Davis, Director of U.S. Governmental Affairs, Health GAP (Global Access Project), New York City. Virginia Shubert Courage Award

The Keith D. Cylar AIDS Activist Awards are given to activists who have shown a tireless dedication to combating the pervasive stigma and discrimination faced by people with HIV/AIDS. Their work reflects the spirit of Housing Works cofounder Keith D. Cylar, who died of AIDS-related complications in 2004. Cylar was a pioneering AIDS activist who helped transform Housing Works into the nation's largest community-based and largest minority-controlled AIDS organization.

"This year's Cylar Awards recipients reflect Keith's determination not to be cowed by the seemingly overwhelming task of ending the AIDS epidemic," says Housing Works President and CEO Charles King. "In Africa, in Haiti, in Puerto Rico and right here in New York State, these activists have shown that there's no limit to the impact an individual can have in the global effort to fight AIDS."

The April 17 gala benefit celebrating the Cylar Awards raises money for the Keith D. Cylar AIDS Activist Fund, which is halfway to reaching a self-sustaining $3 million. Cylar Awardees will also attend a luncheon with representatives from major New York City foundations and go to Washington, DC, for meetings with policy makers and members of Congress and a reception on Capitol Hill.

ABOUT THE AWARDEES:

Esther Boucicault was the first person to speak publicly about having HIV in Haiti, where people living with HIV/AIDS are profoundly stigmatized. Boucicault is the founder and director of the Fondation Esther Boucicault Stanislas, which provides pioneering treatment and support services to hundreds of people living with HIV/AIDS in Haiti's Bas-Artibonite region. She also helped create the National Solidarity Association, Haiti's foremost AIDS group led by people living with HIV/AIDS, and regularly speaks throughout the country about HIV prevention, including the still-taboo topic of safer-sex.

Gloria Gonzalez is an HIV-positive AIDS activist and former injection-drug user (IDU) who is fighting to bring syringe-exchange, treatment, housing and HIV prevention programs to IDUs in her native Puerto Rico. Despite the fact that IDUs account for 50 percent of new HIV infections on the island, the Puerto Rican government has no IDU prevention programs. Gonzalez, who also has an HIV-positive son, dreams of creating housing for IDUs in an abandoned factory not far from a shooting gallery in her hometown of Fajardo.

Diane Williams came to Housing Works as a client in 1994. She has since become one of the most visible members of the Housing Works community. A graduate of our Second Life Job Training Program, Williams works as an administrative assistant to the Senior Vice President for Housing/Chief Financial Officer and regularly participates in Housing Works AIDS advocacy efforts. She has been arrested at numerous civil disobedience actions, including a peaceful take-over of Bush/Cheney campaign headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, in 2004.

As director of international advocacy and director of U.S. governmental affairs, Asia Russell and Paul Davis are the cornerstones of the extraordinarily successful global AIDS organization, Health GAP (Global Access Project). Health GAP is comprised of U.S.-based AIDS and human rights activists, people living with HIV/AIDS, public health experts, fair trade advocates and concerned individuals who campaign against policies of neglect and avarice that deny treatment to millions and fuel the spread of HIV. Health GAP is dedicated to eliminating barriers to global access to affordable life-sustaining medicines for people living with HIV/AIDS as key to a comprehensive strategy to confront and ultimately stop the AIDS pandemic. They believe that the human right to life and to health must prevail over the pharmaceutical industry's excessive profits and expanding patent rights.

HOUSING WORKS, the largest grassroots AIDS organization and largest minority-controlled AIDS organization in the U.S., is dedicated to ending the twin crises of AIDS and homelessness. Housing Works provides housing, medical care, job training, case management, HIV prevention, counseling and testing, and other services to low-income and homeless New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS. For more information, visit www.housingworks.org.

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