Metro

Fighting

A I DS

Mary Fisher accepts
UNAIDS appointment.

Mary Davis Fisher and

UNAIDS Executive
Director Peter Piot

M

ary Davis Fisher, the
. artist, author and
speaker who :travels
the world advocating for those
who share her HIV-positive
status, has accepted the appoint-
ment as special representative fot
the Joint United Nations Program
on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). As
UNAIDS special representative,
Fisher will continue to raise
awareness on HIV prevention,
treatment, care and support, with

an emphasis on women, children
and the oppressed.
Through her many contacts
irr U.S. political and humanitar-
ian circles as well as media and
the arts, Fisher will support the
UNAIDS mission of empowering
people — especially women and
girls — to protect themselves
and live full, productive lives.
"I am proud to appoint Fisher
as UNAIDS special representa-
tive," said Dr. Peter Piot, UNAIDS
executive director. "For more
than a decade and a half, Mary
has been an eloquent voice for
compassion and for action. I am
confident that the warmth, tal-
ent and presence she brings will
help UNAIDS send a powerful
message that can open hearts,
minds, and doors of opportunity
throughout the world."
Fisher is the daughter of the
late Max M. Fisher, legendary
Detroit philanthropist, business-
man and diplomat. Diagnosed
HIV-positive in the summer of

1991, Mary Fisher went public
seven months later. In August
1992, she delivered a land-
mark speech at the Republican
National Convention in Houston,
calling for compassion and
action.
"UNAIDS has worked tire-
lessly to help every pilgrim on
the road to AIDS — and we with
AIDS, around the world, are in
its debt:' Fisher said. "There is so
much more to do — and thanks
to medical miracles, there is so
much more we can do, to prevent
babies and young people from
becoming HIV infected and to
give HIV-positive people healthi-
er, longer lives."
According to UNAIDS, nearly
40 million people are living with
HIV worldwide. Young people
15-24 make up about half of
new HIV infections worldwide.
Every minute a child dies of an
AIDS-related illness, and every
minute a child becomes infected
with HIV.

In 1992, Fisher founded the
Family AIDS Network (FAN), a
group that advocated on behalf
of families touched by AIDS.
In 2000, convinced of the need .
to underpin advocacy with
research and education, Fisher •
closed FAN and founded the
Mary Fisher CARE (Clinical
AIDS Research and Education)
Fund. Based at the University
of Alabama at Birmingham, the
CARE Fund supports long-term,
outcomes-based research for the
care of those with HIV, especially
women, in the United States and
Africa.
Fisher is a member of the
Leadership Council of the Global
Coalition on Women and AIDS. A
television producer and an assis-
tant to a president of the United
States before she gained interna-
tional recognition as a chronicler
of the global AIDS epidemic, she
lives and works in West Palm
Beach, Fla.

Carrying On His Legacy

Mary Davis Fisher
Special to the Jewish News

M

y father, Max Fisher,
was more than an
inspiration and
a role model; he was a true
believer. He didn't see a distinc-
tion between "the community"
and "the marketplace!' Both
were the same, the place we met
our friends, did our work, set
our goals and tried to make our
mark.
So when he enjoyed some
success, he believed that his
success was owing, in large

measure, to others. Whether
he was engaged in business or
in philanthropy or in pOlitical
counsel, he saw it all as doing
the same thing: paying back
those to whom we were
indebted.
When Dad first heard that I
was infected, he went through
all the ordinary emotions. We
sat quietly together, we cried,
we worried, we planned. [In
1991] there were no drugs that
really prolonged life for those
who were infected. In addi-
tion, almost all drugs had been
tested only on men — we knew

very, very little about HIV in
women. But I think it only took
Dad two or three days before
he was thinking about how we
would turn this death sentence
into a contribution.
I've heard from hundreds
--- no, probably by now it's
thousands — of HIV-infected
women around the world how
their families said, "Don't tell.
Don't let it out. Don't embarrass
us." My family worried about
what it would do to me if I went
public. Betty Ford, who had
gone public with other issues
herself, said very clearly, "Once

Max Fisher

you have said it in public, dear,
you can never take it back!'
But my father, in particular,
championed whatever I could
do to make a positive difference.

And, in a way, I think he had
the healthiest approach to my
condition because he believed
that, fundamentally, it doesn't
matter whether you are male or
female, Jewish or Islamic, old or
young, infected or uninfected.
What matters is that you use
what's given to you to give back.
I never wanted to be given
AIDS. But no daughter of Max
Fisher could ignore the obvious
lesson: If that is what's been
given to you, find a way to give
something special back to the
community.

May 25 • 2006

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