SisterLove records

SisterLove was the first women's HIV/AIDS organization in the southeastern United States. At a time when AIDS was considered a risk primarily for gay white men, SisterLove provided safe space for women, especially women of African descent, to confront the realities of living with the disease. Dázon Dixon Diallo initiated a collaboration with a local women's organization to improve access for all women and especially those of color. In 1987, the Women's AIDS Prevention Project (WAPP) was formed. In 1989, the lack of support for WAPP inspired Diallo to found SisterLove Women's AIDS Project with the help of WAPP's Women of Color Advisory Board. Three years later, in 1992, the organization's name was officially changed to SisterLove, Incorporated.

SisterLove began with education and outreach programs, starting with their Healthy Love Parties which were casual gatherings where women of color could discuss HIV/AIDS, their sexual behaviour, and their knowldege of safe sex. By adopting the self help process of the black women's health movement, SisterLove sought to encourage women to break through the stigma in southern culture against speaking up about sex and race. In the following years, SisterLove moved well beyond a prevention model. Using a human rights framework, the group combines women's empowerment with action on the multiple challenges and risk factors that women confront including housing, drug use, poverty and violence, as well as reproductive health and sexual rights. Their projects include HIV/AIDS housing, peer education, testing and counseling services, advocacy, and leadership programs.

In 1997, SisterLove became one of the sixteen founding members of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective.

Seeking to learn from and work with other women in the African diaspora, Dixon initiated collaboration between SisterLove and a women's AIDS group in Johannesburg. In 1999, with funding from the Centers for Disease Control, she established the Thembuhlelo HIV/AIDS Capacity Building Project in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The Project combines women's empowerment with HIV/AIDS services and land reform efforts. SisterLove also provides training and assistance to other AIDS organizations around the world. In July, 2002 SisterLove established a satellite office in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa to provide day-to-day oversight and management of their work in this country.

[source: SisterLove Website: http://sisterlove.org and Voices of Feminism bio note for Dazon Dixon Diallo]