These stories were reviewed and approved by a local panel for use in HIV prevention programs conducted in street and community settings. The stories are real and were published with a photo of the role model (or another person from the target population). Role model stories like these may be used as a part of a comprehensive HIV prevention program that includes information about other risk-reduction strategies such as drug treatment and avoidance of high-risk activities.

KAREN'S STORY

I KNOW HE USES DOPE AND I DON'T KNOW
IF I'M THE ONLY LADY IN HIS LIFE

My name is Karen. I've been out on the streets a long time, boosting and dating to survive.

The other day this outreach worker, Delphine, was telling us about AIDS and what it's doing to folks. Now girl, you know we all know about the AIDS and how you get it. Delphine was telling us how we needed to start using condoms with everyone we have sex with. I saw some people kind of rolling their eyes, but Delphine started talking about how she knows some ladies that got it from their men. These ladies don't even shoot dope!

I've been thinking about this for awhile. Me and my man Joe don't use rubbers. He says we don't need them. But I'm not so sure. I know he uses dope and I don't even think I'm the only lady in his life.

I got together with some other ladies and we started thinking of ways to get our men to use rubbers. Someone said we should leave them on the pillows - that way we have to talk about it.

I personally don't think rubbers get in the way that much and I'm going to try them out with Joe next time we're together. It better work. I think he's the one for me and I try real hard to make things good. Check back with me later – I'll let you know how well my little "experiment" worked.

ALWAYS CARRY CONDOMS

Hi, my name is Tracy and I'm thirty years old, and I do work the streets. I do use drugs, but I believe I've gotten smarter over the years. I put my addiction in a certain place and I put the working part of what I do first. Basically, that is the condoms part. That's the important thing.

Before, the only time I used condoms was when a guy would ask me. This was a couple of years ago. Even at that time I knew I should have been using condoms, whether AIDS existed or not, but I wasn't as educated on the topic of AIDS as I am now. Nowadays, it's like even if I go to the store I take a condom with me. There ain't no telling if I might run into a guy who wants a date. But if I don't have a rubber on me I can lose money. If I say "Let's stop at a store," it just don't work like that because even if they give me money to go buy them, by the time I come out the store my date is gone. Not only that, I don't want nobody saying, "Well hey, we can forego the condom." I have to tell them, "Uh-uh, we ain't gonna forego nothing." I always have condoms in my pocket and in my jackets. You never know when you'll need them, so I always carry condoms with me.

DON'T BE TRICKED BY A TRICK

My name is Roxy, and I'm 25 years old. I've been using heroin and working on the streets since I was 17 years old. When I go out I just do my business. I don't mess around and I don't associate with nobody on the streets because it only amounts to trouble.

In the last two years that I've been working the streets, I've been using rubbers. Just from my own experience as a user, you don't know who's shooting dope and you don't know who may have AIDS or any disease just by looking at them. A trick could have bumps on him and he'll make you think it's pimples just so you won't use a rubber. Three weeks later, you got yourself an infection.

Some tricks will try to get out of wearing rubbers, especially if they just want head. Most of the time if he says he won't wear a rubber I get out of the car, even if he tells me he's clean. I tell him, "I don't care if you're clean. I was just taught to do it this way. It's better for you and it's better for me." Sometimes they'll try to accuse me of being sick or something. I just say, "No, I'm not sick. You want it or not? If you want it you're gonna have to use a rubber, if not, then get someone else." That's the way you gotta be.

ME AND MY MAN

I work the streets. My man, he be waiting for me when I come home. He takes what he can get money-wise, then he goes and does his stuff. We been together for a year now. We get along all right.

I been using protection with my dates for a while now, but me and my old man didn't use no condoms. Since we been together for so long, I thought, what can I get from him that I ain't already caught? Then my girlfriend started getting on me about it. She said he didn't care about me and my safety. That he be with me for as long as I keep giving him money, but the only thing he cared about is himself. She said that if he did care he would use the condoms, ‘cause there's the AIDS now, and once you get AIDS it ain't never gonna go away.

Well, I thought about that and she was right. I do lots of stuff for him, least he could do is protect me by using condom. If I could get my dates to use condoms, I knew I could get my man to use them, too. I got my way of doing things. We tried using one last night, and I got him to go along with my program without giving me no grief.