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Recent Press

Jennifer Jako: “It’s Not about Subtlety or Silence”

PQ Monthly March 2014

 

" It only takes one time to infect. We all have to establish what is safe for us, everyone has a degree of risk that they are willing to engage in, but I think unfortunately with HIV a lot of people, myself included, option themselves out of the risk.

...Because of who I am, I’ve been able to be a secret weapon. Especially in the early days when AIDS was not a friendly subject. In conservative rural schools homosexuality couldn’t be mentioned and the word condom couldn’t be said, but they were allowing us to talk about HIV so that was a win!"

"Empowered to Be Greater Than AIDS"

​Huffington Post April 2013

"Jen tested positive for HIV twenty years ago and admits she never thought it would happen to her. She now lives with her husband and daughter, both HIV negative.

...These women have come together, one HIV positive story at a time, to stand up to their status and be forces of change in their communities and for women all over the world.

...These EMPOWERED women have dreams and plans for the future. They are mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, students, caregivers and business owners. Individually, they are falling in love, starting families, and pursuing careers. Together, they are breaking down barriers and learning to live with newfound freedom."

"AIDS at 25: AMERICA, The New Faces of HIV"

Newsweek Cover Story, May 2006

"She chose celibacy at 18, after her first experiences with sex. It was too late. Now, 15 years after testing positive for HIV -- twice as long as she was expected to live -- Jako faces her greateset challenge: motherhood. With her husband HIV - negative and Jako's virus successfully suppressed, their baby girl has a less than 1 percent chance of being born with the infection. 'I am choosing to live and have a future,' says Jako. 'I need to be there for her.'

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