Hope in Any Language

Hope in any language
By Congressman Joseph R. Pitts

Kim learned years ago that she was HIV positive. She was addicted to drugs. She lived with a man who had multiple partners. She received medical care at the City Clinic. But she needed more. She needed personal, private attention.

A colleague told her about Esperanza Health Center in Philadelphia, the city in which she and her four children settled after moving from New York and dropping her drug habit. But she had developed several other illnesses and needed medical care.

When her pain became unbearable, she went to Esperanza. When she again tested positive for HIV, her doctor developed a personal treatment plan for her, which included leaving work and letting her body recover.

With the Esperanza's help, Kim applied for disability and Social Security. The hospital even helped pay her gas and electric bills, assisted with medical and food bills during those especially hard months.

Today, she continues to regain strength at home. She has changed her lifestyle, has a healthier emotional outlook, attends church, and continues to avoid her destructive habits of her past. Her four children and eleven grandchildren are all close by and help with her care.

Each day, there are millions of men and women like Kim walking the streets of our communities, in need of medical care, compassion, and love. Kim's story is different though.

Esperanza Health Center is a hospital compelled by Christian faith. It works in cooperation with churches and others in the city to change lives by "providing healthcare oriented to the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of Philadelphia's Latino community."

It has a full-time board certified bilingual staff. Health Partners, Inc. has called Esperanza a "Center of Excellence" for the diagnosis and treatment of HIV/AIDS.

Esperanza receives federal money to treat HIV patients. Under a grant awarded in 2003 through Title III of the "Ryan White Care Act" the hospital received $468,224 over two years from the Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration.

With this grant money, Esperanza can help with patient advocacy, case management, and patient outreach. Patients can now receive education regarding their diseases, HIV testing, counseling, and nutrition.

This type of partnership represents a bold new direction in the government's strategy to fight poverty.

Working alone, the federal government has achieved mixed results in fighting poverty. Many have been helped. But too often, government assistance means long lines, impersonal bureaucracy, a meager check to make ends meet. If anything, the federal government's effect on poverty has proven a blunt weapon against a disease that requires surgical precision.

Over the last few years, Washington has awakened to the fact that faith-based and community organizations offer what it cannot - effective, efficient, compassionate services to those in need. They do not just offer a meal, a prescription, and a place to stay. They offer also a listening ear, counsel to make positive choices, and support for those who need to make radical lifestyle changes. In short, they offer hope.

Faith-based organizations often rise to meet a specific need in a specific community, like Esperanza. Generally, local citizens, who know the area and the people, staff and volunteer at these organizations. Budgets are not controlled by faceless bureaucrats, but by homegrown local leaders familiar with the community and what it needs.

They are able, by virtue of their structure and position in the community, to offer personalized care in a timely fashion. And they do more with much less, relying on donations and low overhead to care for as many people as possible.
Instead of the endless bureaucracy and waste of government, partnerships with organizations like Esperanza Health Center, allow Washington to do more with less. Government aid can be more effectively targeted at needs, instead of lost in red tape.

In 2003, several billion dollars found its way to faith-based organizations through federal grant programs that that offer assistance to those in need. This is a sign that Washington is slowly learning what many of us have known for years.
"Esperanza" means "hope" in Spanish. With the government's help, faith-based organizations like Esperanza Health Center are offering hope in any language to millions in need.