Recently, the nonprofit group One Day at a Time (ODT) held its 16th annual candlelight HIV/AIDS vigil in a hardscrabble North Philadelphia neighborhood. Some 200 people attended the gathering, hoping to bring light into a community saddled with shame and fear of being stigmatized by the disease.

Philadelphia health department figures show some 16,000 adults in the city are living with HIV/AIDS. The neighborhood where the vigil was held, on Lehigh Avenue between 24th and 25th streets, has a high percentage of them.

ODT was founded around 25 years ago by the Rev. Henry T. Wells. As a recovering addict, Wells sought to provide drug users a path to recovery. ODT now employs 80 staff who offer 2,500 residential clients with drug and alcohol counseling, shelter assistance, GED tutoring, and parenting classes. ODT also conducts HIV outreach to address the high infection rate among drug users.

A half-hour into the vigil, 20 people volunteered to be tested for HIV. "A lot of people are scared to get tested," ODT client Oscar Clark told the crowd, "but if you get tested that's how you live." Clark said after his HIV diagnosis 11 years ago, he learned everything he could about HIV/AIDS. He now visits those newly diagnosed "to give the same ray of hope I got."

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