Janine Brignola
December 2011
It is with great honor we announce Janine Brignola as our Dab the AIDS Bear's Angel for December 2011. Not only is Janine one of our Ambassadors of Hope but she also works tirelessly for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Here is Janine's story:
I would love to tell you all about the wonderful or hard childhood I had but the reality of my life is that I have amnesia. I have almost no memory with the exception of a very few random dream like memories. What I do know is that I had a sister and a somewhat normal life once, my parents divorced when I was young but they tried their best to be good parents after that, and that I have always been a bit of an outcast. But I wouldn't change any of it for anything in the world!
I found out that I was HIV positive when I was about three months pregnant and at that time I knew nothing more than HIV was that thing that everybody didn't want and I thought you get HIV you die. I remember standing with a knife to my wrist and the only thing that stopped me was the fact that I was pregnant and I just couldn't do that. At that point I knew something needed to change because no one should be so uneducated or miseducated about something that they are that afraid of it. It took me some time to get used to being, not only a single mother but someone newly infected with HIV. I started educating myself and when I was ready and armed with enough information I set out to try and do my part in changing what HIV and AIDS means.
I started to speak locally and reached out to other activist for help, my mentor, none other than Mr. Dab Garner himself, was the first person who was willing to offer me advice, a friendship, a role model, and the chance to be one of the honored Dab The AIDS Bear Ambassador's of Hope. Last World AIDS Day, December 1 of 2010, the MTV Staying Alive campaign included two of my blogs on their website for the launch of their Me, Myself, and HIV, which if I am honest opened many doors because people started thinking what I had to say had some value. Since then I have became a board member for The ADAP Advocacy Association, a speaker for Does HIV Look Like Me at the company Hope's Voice, I have been invited to numerous schools, youth groups, colleges, universities, and various other programs to speak to people and share my experience of HIV, I participated in two Nebraska campaigns where I was on a commercial and billboards across the state, and the two latest things I have gotten involved in doing are starting a C2EA Nebraska chapter and launching my own campaign called My Rights for women living with HIV and AIDS.
I share this information with you because if there is nothing else you take away from reading about me, I hope for it to be that you can see HIV is not a death sentence, it is not a means to the end, it can be and has been for me a saving grace. I have always been a fighter, competitive, and stubborn, I have stood up for human rights in the past, I have protested, and slept on a sidewalk to try and make people listen but having HIV has given me a reason to fight for change more than anything ever has. BUT... that does not mean that having HIV is easy, it does not mean that if you get HIV you take medicine and live a “normal” life, it does not mean that because some people flourish that this life is easy, it means this life and these choices some people with HIV or AIDS make to be public and to stand up for what they, I, feel is the right thing is a mission we have taken upon ourselves to try and change what little we can of this world but there are easier and smarter ways of doing that, so find your silver lining and don't wait to be a statistic to find your voice!
For these and many more reasons, we are honored to announce Janine Brignola as our Dab the AIDS Bear's Angel for December 2011.
Here is Janine's story:
I would love to tell you all about the wonderful or hard childhood I had but the reality of my life is that I have amnesia. I have almost no memory with the exception of a very few random dream like memories. What I do know is that I had a sister and a somewhat normal life once, my parents divorced when I was young but they tried their best to be good parents after that, and that I have always been a bit of an outcast. But I wouldn't change any of it for anything in the world!
I found out that I was HIV positive when I was about three months pregnant and at that time I knew nothing more than HIV was that thing that everybody didn't want and I thought you get HIV you die. I remember standing with a knife to my wrist and the only thing that stopped me was the fact that I was pregnant and I just couldn't do that. At that point I knew something needed to change because no one should be so uneducated or miseducated about something that they are that afraid of it. It took me some time to get used to being, not only a single mother but someone newly infected with HIV. I started educating myself and when I was ready and armed with enough information I set out to try and do my part in changing what HIV and AIDS means.
I started to speak locally and reached out to other activist for help, my mentor, none other than Mr. Dab Garner himself, was the first person who was willing to offer me advice, a friendship, a role model, and the chance to be one of the honored Dab The AIDS Bear Ambassador's of Hope. Last World AIDS Day, December 1 of 2010, the MTV Staying Alive campaign included two of my blogs on their website for the launch of their Me, Myself, and HIV, which if I am honest opened many doors because people started thinking what I had to say had some value. Since then I have became a board member for The ADAP Advocacy Association, a speaker for Does HIV Look Like Me at the company Hope's Voice, I have been invited to numerous schools, youth groups, colleges, universities, and various other programs to speak to people and share my experience of HIV, I participated in two Nebraska campaigns where I was on a commercial and billboards across the state, and the two latest things I have gotten involved in doing are starting a C2EA Nebraska chapter and launching my own campaign called My Rights for women living with HIV and AIDS.
I share this information with you because if there is nothing else you take away from reading about me, I hope for it to be that you can see HIV is not a death sentence, it is not a means to the end, it can be and has been for me a saving grace. I have always been a fighter, competitive, and stubborn, I have stood up for human rights in the past, I have protested, and slept on a sidewalk to try and make people listen but having HIV has given me a reason to fight for change more than anything ever has. BUT... that does not mean that having HIV is easy, it does not mean that if you get HIV you take medicine and live a “normal” life, it does not mean that because some people flourish that this life is easy, it means this life and these choices some people with HIV or AIDS make to be public and to stand up for what they, I, feel is the right thing is a mission we have taken upon ourselves to try and change what little we can of this world but there are easier and smarter ways of doing that, so find your silver lining and don't wait to be a statistic to find your voice!
For these and many more reasons, we are honored to announce Janine Brignola as our Dab the AIDS Bear's Angel for December 2011.
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