Making A Difference in Your Community : Fight Against AIDS Drawing New Recruits

Often, those who offer to help the AIDS Healthcare Foundation have lost someone to AIDS--a family member, a friend, a co-worker.

But increasingly, some volunteers have had no contact at all with people who have contracted the disease, such as a college student who either took a course or read a magazine article, said Karen Dale Wolman, the foundation’s director of volunteer resources.

“They realize how devastating it is, and they want to be involved with people who have AIDS,” she said.

Wolman, once a volunteer, got involved with the foundation through her work on lesbian issues and because she has lost close friends to AIDS. Rather than trying to help someone you know with AIDS, she said, it is sometimes easier to help strangers as a volunteer for a group such as the foundation.

The organization, which runs two hospices and four outpatient clinics, provides help to AIDS patients regardless of their ability to pay. Its newest clinic opened in Sherman Oaks in November and has recently started looking for volunteers for daytime office work.

The new clinic especially needs bilingual volunteers. Although AIDS has devastated the homosexual population in the San Fernando Valley, the disease has been spreading to heterosexuals, including undocumented minorities, in greater numbers, said Joe Silva, the case manager for the Sherman Oaks clinic.

Zanaida Vasquez, the clinic’s office manager, remembers one case in which a woman was in the final stages of the disease. She had not gone to the clinic because she was an undocumented resident. Finally, she went to Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar, where she died.

“They think we are going to turn them in,” said Vasquez, who added that the clinic closely protects the confidentiality of its patients.

“We need more education and outreach,” Silva said. “We want people to know we are here.”

Reaching heterosexuals with AIDS is also difficult because of the lingering stigma attached to the disease. Because many see AIDS as only a gay disease, the denial among heterosexuals may run deep, Wolman said.

“We have residents (dying) in hospices who don’t admit that they have AIDS.”

The foundation promises that no phone call to its clinics will be ended until the person calling receives the help he or she needs, or a referral somewhere else in the network of agencies that deal with AIDS.

“Our philosophy is to provide one-stop shopping,” said Wolman, explaining that the foundation’s goal is to have as many services as possible available through one site. The organization also is starting a free legal-service program within the next month, which will include help with wills, immigration, family issues and discrimination.

For more information or to volunteer, call Vasquez at (818) 981-0041 or Wolman at (213) 462-2273.

The Burbank Tournament of Roses is looking for volunteers to help with the construction of its “Reach for the Wind” float, which will appear in the Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year’s Day. Burbank is one of only six cities that build floats entirely with volunteer labor. Float work parties are on Wednesdays and Saturdays. For more information, call (213) 258-1925 or (818) 566-7933.

The Valley Storefront Multiservice Center for Seniors is looking for volunteers to instruct seniors in a variety of subjects such as photography, indoor gardening, beginning French, t’ai chi, pepper-spray use and improvisational comedy. Classes are one hour once a week. Call to schedule an interview with Judy Raffel, activities director, at (818) 984-1380.

The Valley Storefront is looking for a volunteer co-chairman for its Senior Tix program, which arranges for discount theater tickets for senior citizens, and a typist who preferably knows how to use a computer. For information, call (818) 984-1380.

Getting Involved is a weekly listing of volunteering opportunities. Please address prospective listings to Getting Involved, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Or fax them to (818) 772-3338.