t National Action
Network's First Annual Convention, one of the many fine panel
discussions was entitled "Fair Stop: Policing Communities of Color."
During the question and answer period, a young man who identified
himself as a pediatrician, stepped up to the microphone and spoke with
great feeling about the trauma suffered by children when their parents
are victims of police brutality. However the "system" refuses to
recognize the horrible affects these incidents have on the minds, the
selves of the children, and there are no funds made available to pay for
treatment. He literally broke down with emotion as he talked of the pain
these children experience.
Everyone
attending the panel discussion was moved by the deep concern this young
man showed for the good and welfare of children. When this reporter
connected with him, he turned out to be the esteemed Dr. Noel Howell,
founder of the not-for-profit organization Children Living with AIDS,
Inc.
Dr. Howell, who practices pediatric medicine in the Bronx, was born
in Antigua. His childhood was spent back and forth between the West
Indies and the United States, living with first one parent and then the
other. He attended high school in the Virgin Islands, and then received
his medical degree from the University of Miami.
In answer
to how he came to form Children Living with AIDS, Dr. Howell said
that he himself has two children who sing--his son Marquis who is 12 and
his daughter Jada, age 13. "In 1998 I used to take them to the hospital
where I was in my last year of residency so they could sing karaoke,
lead sing alongs, and do all kinds of things to entertain the kids who
were hospitalized. Then one time the nurses had all the kids in the
playroom for the entertainment--except the kids with AIDS were not
allowed into the room."
At
the time, Dr. Howell didn't realize this was happening, but later on,
"There was this one little girl who was my patient, and she and I were
very close. She said to me, 'Dr. Howell, you're just as bad as the rest
of them.' I asked 'Why?' 'Because you don't want us in the room,' she
told me. I said, 'No, anyone can come!'"
He questioned the nurses about what had happened and found out that
they were indeed preventing the children with HIV from attending because
they thought it was safer for the other children. "I said, 'No, you have
it the other way around--if anyone needs to be protected, the children
who have HIV should be sheltered from the general population!' So this
particular time I brought Jada and Marquis back, and the entertainment
was only for the 10 or so kids that had HIV. Then we started doing that,
and from that, Children Living with AIDS was formed."
The primary goal to begin with was to provide entertainment for
children who were hospitalized with HIV, so he took his son and daughter
around to perform karaoke at different hospitals. Then, they started
getting involved with other things as well, such as holding Christmas
parties for these children and their families. Then the Howells started
branching out even further. They now go into communities to provide
education about AIDS prevention, and at times Dr. Howell takes Jada and
Marquis with him to conventions where they sing or read poems as part of
his presentation.
One of the major things they are working on now is soliciting tickets
to things like baseball games. "We try to get the children with HIV and
their families into a neutral setting where there's nothing involving
their illness; they're just there experiencing a performance or event
like anyone else," explained Dr. Howell. "We send them to the movies, to
baseball games; we've had tickets to Broadway shows where they can just
go and enjoy the evening without the stigma of having HIV."
In order to assist with this kind work by contributing tickets,
please call Dr. Noel Howell at (718) 620-0034.
If you wish to make a donation to help buy tickets, the check should
be made out to Children Living with AIDS, Inc., and mailed to Dr.
Howell at 4613 Matilda Avenue, Bronx, New York, 10470.
By Donna Lamb
