Alicia Keys Launches EMPOWERED Campaign

Yesterday at the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, D.C., fourteen-time Grammy Award-winning artist and HIV advocate Alicia Keys introduced EMPOWERED, an ongoing public information campaign to reach women in the U.S. about HIV/AIDS. Launched in March 2013, the campaign speaks to both those affected by HIV/AIDS and allies in the fight about what we all can do to change the course of this disease.

During her remarks and discussion, Keys was incredibly humble, thoughtful, passionate and sincere in her call to action. At the event, she was joined by Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Obama & Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls, The Honorable Barbara Lee, U.S. House of Representatives (D-CA13) & Co-Chair of the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus, and Drew Altman, Ph.D., President & CEO, Kaiser Family Foundation, among other experts and authorities working on HIV/AIDS.

Of the more than 1.1 million people living with HIV in the United States today, one in four is a woman. Women of color have been especially hard hit, accounting for the majority of new infections occurring among women in this country. There has been some recent good news: in December 2012, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) reported a significant 21 percent decrease in new infections among women in the U.S. between 2008 and 2010. For this progress to continue, efforts must be sustained.

The first phase of the campaign features Ms. Keys in conversation with five HIV positive women from different parts of the country and walks of life. Among them are: Cristina, a graduate student from the San Francisco Bay Area who was born with HIV; Eva, a home health care worker living in Atlanta with her family; Jen, a wife and mother in Portland, Oregon, who has being living with HIV for more than 20 years; Kym, a young professional living in Texas who learned she was positive after her new husband became sick and died as a result of HIV after going off his medications; and Stephanie, a recent college graduate from North Carolina who appeared in an MTV special on youth and HIV. Through their stories the women show how, whether HIV positive or negative, we are all empowered to make a difference in the course of this disease