As World AIDS Day arrives people working in the field have stepped forward in a renewed effort to raise the awareness of the disease.

This year?s focus is on women and girls who are facing the disease in increasing numbers.

AIDS, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, first made its mark on the Island in the early 1980s and was mainly seen in intravenous drug users, but today the face of AIDS has changed.

Many Island families are affected by the disease in innumerable ways, said Lighthouse administrator Ruth Skinner, who has been working for Star/Lighthouse for almost 18 years.

She became involved with sufferers because her late husband, Johnny, was friends with several men who were drug users.

?I started because several of my husband?s friends were ex-drug users and they had started coming down with the virus,? Mrs. Skinner said.

?In those days there wasn?t a lot known about AIDS and we had this one guy that was in the hospital, who in fact had lived with us, and I used to go down there after work.

?When I?d arrive his lunch tray would still be outside of his room and I asked him if he had eaten and he?d say, ?no one has been in here to feed me?. He couldn?t do it himself.

?In those days a lot of the hospital help was scared and they didn?t know how the disease was contracted and there was a lot of mass hysteria. So, I would go and feed him and others. I felt it was terrible the way these guys were being treated.?

She said the Star office, which was located near what is now Dellwood Middle School, was a safe haven for many people.

?Most of the men were living at the Salvation Army and that meant that they had to be out all through the day and when it was really bad weather a lot of them would come into the Star office for a chat,? she said.

?And I used to really feel like crying at some of the things they would tell me.

?We had one guy whose mother had invited him home for some family celebration. When he arrived she had the dinner table set up with all her fine china and for him she had a plastic plate, plastic fork and plastic knife.

?He also noticed that whenever he went to the bathroom his mother went in behind him and sprayed the seat with Clorox.

?I used to think ?I don?t know how these people live with that?.

?They have this disease that they know will eventually kill them and there are other pressures that they have to deal with.

?I used to just hug them because I just couldn?t imagine and it makes me teary today just to think of how they were treated in those days.?

Mrs. Skinner added that although the Star office was small there was a constant flow of people in search of counselling and it was also in a good area, as it within walking distance of Court Street.

She said the Lighthouse home was born out of inadequate housing for many of the sufferers who were homeless.

?Star was founded by Russ Ford and Christine Anderson,? she said. ?We had lots of people living at the Salvation Army and we always knew that we needed a home for the homeless.

?After many meetings with Government they gave us this place.

?We had many places in mind, but they were sometimes in a drug area and we also wanted a place where we didn?t have people staring.

?So, when we got this place, we decided to call it the Lighthouse because it is a beacon. It was years in the waiting, but this is perfect.?

But Mrs. Skinner said there is a need for a separate women?s facility.

?We have a waiting list and we need another home ? one for the women and one for the men,? she said.

?It started off with all men, then we had some women, then a husband and wife, then we had a mother and daughter, and then we had a husband, wife and two children.?

Mrs. Skinner said in the early days of AIDS the medicines were not as effective as they are today.

?They didn?t have the medicines that are keeping people alive today,? she said. ?So my involvement meant a lot of time in the hospital with people and we would sit with them until they passed away.?

The workers at Star and the Lighthouse have seen many sufferers die with the virus over the years.

?We?ve seen lots and lots of people in here that we have become close to like family,? she said. ?And when they die it?s like ?geez?. I don?t think that you ever get used to it. I don?t think you can.

?I must say that it doesn?t affect me emotionally as much as it used to in the beginning. In those days it was always a horror story and you died with this horror.

?Where today, we try to make most people very comfortable and we have lots of people out there that help, especially at Christmas time, and they do for the children.?

She said some of her worst moments were when she became emotionally involved with a couple of women.

?I got very close to two of them and one, when she was on her last legs, I slept in the hospital with her until she passed,? she said. ?And another girl died right after my husband and that was horrible for me.?

Mrs. Skinner said attitudes toward the disease have changed over the years, but there is still a shame attached to it.

?Now there is so much more known about the disease, but there is still a lot of stigma,? she said.

?But in the beginning, I knew I was making a difference even if I just helped one person.

?Today some of these guys were tested like 20 years ago, but because of the cocktail of drugs they have jobs and they are healthy. But still, a lot of them are very lonely.

?Families don?t come around like they should.?

Mrs. Skinner said the organisation also deals with a lot of children, whose parents either have the disease or who have lost their parents to the virus.

?We have grandparents whose daughter and son-in-law both died,? she said. ?And they were left with five children.

?Some of the children are teenagers now, but thank God that they were not infected, but they were very badly affected by it.?

She finds it difficult at times to help the children, but a counsellor has volunteered to assist them emotionally.

?We had a lady who was counselling here at the Lighthouse,? she said. ?She gave up her Saturdays and counselled the children who had lost parents.

?These children really needed it, because a lot of them will not open up to their parents, they will not open up to their mother or father, or to the school counsellor.?

She added that two years ago they had a little girl who lost her dad who she was very close to.

?When he died, she just shut down,? said Mrs. Skinner.

?She was about seven or eight years old.

?The counsellor talked to her and got her to draw pictures, but she wouldn?t talk. She drew a happy picture of her and her father holding her hand.

?So, a lot of times, children won?t talk and I?ve noticed that at the funerals they are left to the side while the adults are all embracing each other.

?But I think people who are grieving don?t really think that the children understand and that it is also very traumatic for them.?

Christmas is a big time at Lighthouse and Mrs. Skinner is in charge of all the hampers and she ensures a gift for all of the children.

?We have them delivered and people are really good to our children,? she said.

?They see to it that the children have clothes and toys and Appleby Spurling and Hunter are good to us every year and they see to it that they give us a humongous hamper with a turkey, a ham, a pie, and all the trimmings. They give everyone that in the household gifts and they give Christmas tree.

?They give six families a whole Christmas every year.?

She said the Ladies of St. Theresa?s also prepare a card with a pseudonym for each child, their age, gender and sizes and a toy, which is then pinned onto a Christmas tree in the church.

?They get gifts for them and their children,? Mrs. Skinner said, adding the same is done for the adults, but they mostly get toiletries.

?There are hundreds of gifts, so I must say, that this time of year it is very busy here.

?I had a lady who called who wants to foster a child, meaning she wants to buy her all of her school clothes and just take care of her, so I am thinking of someone.

?That makes me feel so good ? it is so rewarding.?

But the Lighthouse needs continuous support and Mrs. Skinner said there are often times when she and Carol Armstrong do not get paid for the work they do.

?I love the work, it is never the same,? she said.

?Some days I cook, others I clean if there is nothing going on in the office.

?I still make visits to the hospital or the prisons. It is always something interesting.?

?You never know what you are going to be doing from day to day.

?I just thank God everyday for this place because we have made such a difference in people?s lives.?