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In November 1994, Carolyn Massey was living in Philadelphia, sitting in a doctor's office.

She was trying to come to terms with what the doctor was saying. Just six months after her brother had died from AIDS-related complications, she was diagnosed with HIV.

"I was so ignorant then," Massey, 52, said. "I did nothing for over a year."

But now, almost 15 years later, the Russett resident is educating others about HIV as the director of the HIV Ministry for New Samaritan Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.

In 2008, she helped form Massmer Associates, which provides networking and education to prevent the spread of HIV while increasing the resources among service providers and recipients of HIV/AIDS services.

And to coincide with March 10 being National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day her "patch" — a video testimonial — is being added to The Living Quilt.

The quilt is an online project of the Southern Aids Coalition and Test for Life — an organization that encourages HIV testing — that uses video interviews of women who are living with HIV and AIDS. The quilt emphasizes the importance of HIV screening as a routine part of medical care and provides resources to help those affected make informed health care decisions and understand the significance of knowing their HIV status.

"The power of the quilt is through reducing the stigma," said Danny O'Farrell, spokesman for the Southern Aids Living Quilt. "By reducing the stigma in communities across the south, it allows people to see a face that looks like their cousin, their mother or their co-worker. Through their stories, they are able to empower themselves and others."

According to statistics from the Southern AIDS Coalition, 4 out of 10 Americans living with AIDS and 52 percent of people living with HIV reside in the South. Additionally, African-American women are the fastest growing group of newly diagnosed patients.

According to the Maryland AIDS Administration, a division of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, there are 32,811 people living with HIV and AIDS in Maryland as of 2007.

Massey was interviewed when she went to a January conference held by the Living Quilt in Baltimore. She was one of the 15 women filmed, and is positive of its future effect.

"The most dangerous thing today is people's preconceptions, misconceptions and refusal to hear the truth," she said. "[The Quilt] is a way to give face to the disease, to bring it from something that is removed from me, to be among me."

Massey's patch can be viewed at www.livingquilt.org/carolyn

E-mail Timmy Gelles at tgelles@gazette.net.