On the Front Lines: Needle Exchange Volunteers

"It's a blessing to have you all," said one visitor. "You guys do a great job," beamed a second. "Keep up the good work," said the next.

Supportive comments like these are standard at the Sixth Street Exchange, one of ten sites run by SFAF's Needle Exchange Program. More than 100 clients visit one of the exchange sites every day to trade used syringes for clean ones and pick up other safe-injecting supplies.

Needle sharing is an extremely risky activity. In the earliest years of the AIDS pandemic, injecting drug users suffered a high proportion of the disease burden. Needle exchange is one of the most successful interventions devised in the 26-year history of the pandemic. Distributing safe injecting equipment -- pioneered in 1988 right here in San Francisco by Prevention Point, an all-volunteer organization -- has led to a dramatic drop in HIV infections for injecting drug users, and study after study has demonstrated that needle exchange programs reduce infection rates without increasing drug use.

The tradition of volunteers working in needle exchange continues to this day. Sixty SFAF volunteers are trained for this challenging assignment, helping intravenous drug users in the Tenderloin and elsewhere reduce their risk of acquiring HIV and Hepatitis C. Every day, volunteers hand out nearly 7,000 clean syringes, along with supplies such as cotton balls, alcohol swabs, and condoms.

"We respect and value every client," explains Pauli Gray, SFAF's Volunteer Educator. "We're the ones they trust." And for volunteers like Marla Smoot, a health education student at San Francisco State, the positive feedback she gets from clients motivates her to keep coming back every week.

"What can I get you?" Smoot asked a recent client, a middle-aged man she's come to know over time. "A little bit of everything," he replied as Smoot filled a brown paper bag with a sampling of supplies for him. "Anything else?" she asked. "Peace on earth and good will towards men," he grinned. "Coming right up!" said Smoot as the client went on his way.

To learn about becoming a Needle Exchange volunteer, contact Jahaira Fajardo at 415-241-5130 or jfajardo@sfaf.org. To learn more about HIV/AIDS, including how and where to get tested, call the California AIDS Hotline at 800-367-AIDS.