CRENSHAW : HIV Patients Find an Oasis

The client recalled the day this past spring he found out he was HIV-positive.

“I was emotionally shattered,” the Crenshaw-area resident said softly. “I felt like it was all over. But here I get information, spiritual and emotional support. Now I plan to go to school to become a medical records technician.”

The client, who wanted to remain anonymous, and hundreds of others are finding something of an oasis at the Gathering Place, a drop-in center for people with AIDS or who are HIV-positive and their care-givers.

The Gathering Place, 3860 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., provides hot meals, massages, counseling, art therapy classes and support group sessions. The focus at the center, which has a library, a kitchen, and private massage and sleeping rooms, is on offering a homey, caring atmosphere. “People don’t come here to die,” said director Sheila DeGruy. “We stress maintaining the quality of life.”

DeGruy’s somewhat shy demeanor masks a steely determination to keep the center, which has an annual budget of $109,000, in operation. “The need for more centers like ours in the African-American and Latino communities is growing,” said DeGruy. “As the AIDS crisis continues, there won’t be enough agencies to handle newly infected people, which will include more women and children.”

When the 42-year-old Ohio native, who has a background in nursing and health care management, came on board as director just days after the April-May riots, her mission was clear: “After all the suffering I’d seen, I made up my mind a long time ago to help people with AIDS. It’s so sad that people are shunned because of an illness.”

But in the wake of the unrest, DeGruy found that rebuilding the city commanded the attention of public and private donors. She quickly made community outreach and fund raising her focuses, but so far it has been daunting. “People in South-Central L.A. still have an attitude that AIDS doesn’t affect them,” DeGruy said.

“Churches don’t respond. Only two out of 60 churches I contacted in the community--Grace United Methodist and Bethel AME in South-Central L.A.--wanted to participate in helping us.”

To raise money, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal had a gospel concert for the center in August, and DeGruy plans an art auction and a December show of art produced by clients.

The Gathering Place is largely funded by the two Catholic orders, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondolet and St. Joseph of Orange, that founded it in 1990. Brother Peter Rietkerk, who was also instrumental in starting the center and belongs to the Missionary Brothers of Charity, is one of the center’s four paid staffers.

The energetic, Dutch-born Rietkerk speaks fluent Spanish and ministers to many of the Latino visitors, who account for nearly half of the center’s clientele.

“It’s like everybody pitching in after a hurricane or earthquake. We all come together in a time of crisis. We simply support people. We give no ultimatums here.”