{"id":546,"date":"2017-02-27T09:00:24","date_gmt":"2017-02-27T14:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=546"},"modified":"2017-02-23T15:24:15","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T20:24:15","slug":"lanika-mabrey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=546","title":{"rendered":"Lanika Mabrey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Great Loss, Greater Gains<\/h1>\n

By Samantha Mendoza | Photography by Alice G. Patterson<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Lanika Mabrey is a familiar figure on the Westside of Syracuse.<\/p>\n

She walks through its streets frequently, bundled up in warm clothing in the cool winter weather, distributing educational pamphlets about sexual health to local bodegas and approaching local residents with her signature tote bag full of condoms.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood afternoon, can I give you some condoms?\u201d she says to each stranger she encounters. \u201cHere\u2019s some PrEP information as well. Take care!\u201d<\/p>\n

Lanika has been involved with educating the local community about PrEP since July 2015. Pre-exposure prophylaxis \u2014 PrEP \u2014 is a revolutionary new daily medication that can reduce the risk of contracting HIV by up to 90 percent. After working with various local nonprofits for the past eight years \u2014 from Syracuse United Neighbors to Citizen Action to ACR Health \u2014 Lanika has become a symbol of strength and comfort in neighborhoods across the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in an environment of addiction,\u201d Lanika said of her childhood home on the Southwest side of the city. \u201cIt would be an injustice not to use my education \u2014 who I\u2019ve become \u2014 for the betterment of my community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lanika has become the person she is \u2014 vibrant, resilient and committed to reducing the local rates of HIV and AIDS \u2014 in part due to the loss she has endured.<\/p>\n

In 2009, Lanika\u2019s mother, Salendria, died of AIDS at the age of 54. Although her mother had been living with the disease for more than 20 years, Lanika wasn\u2019t aware of her status until seven days before her death.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like a sledgehammer to my chest,\u201d Lanika said. \u201cI was blindsided by her loss, and it was such a tragedy that I just didn\u2019t see a purpose in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lanika believes her mother didn\u2019t disclose her HIV-positive status because of the stigma surrounding the disease when it first began spreading in the U.S. in the \u201980s and \u201990s, and because of the lack of understanding about the disease itself, especially among communities of color that have less access to health and educational resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a long time, I think, she lived in denial,\u201d Lanika said. \u201cThere was no treatment and no connection to services. She just endured, alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lanika spent the months following her mother\u2019s death coping with the shock and devastation, but soon began getting involved in community organizations her mother had once been part of.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother was very active in the community, so I decided that I should start volunteering,\u201d Lanika said. \u201cI began to ask myself: How do I stop focusing on her death and start celebrating her life?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lanika soon found the answer when, after years of working with local groups on initiatives like health care advocacy and environmental justice, she became a prevention health advocate for ACR Health in 2013, specializing in educating local at-risk populations about HIV prevention methods. Working within her community to prevent the spread of the disease that her mother suffered from was rewarding, Lanika said, but not without challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are still moments where I have to step away and cry, because I\u2019m actually learning about my mom\u2019s journey through my own journey,\u201d Lanika said. \u201cBut the pain is also very motivating. I don\u2019t want any other family to experience the pain that I experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s both this pain and the promise for change that motivates Lanika to continue her work in local communities. She considers community outreach \u2014 her strolls through the Southside and Westside of the city, speaking directly with the people who are most unconnected to health resources \u2014 to be her favorite part of the job.<\/p>\n

She hopes her message of sexual health and HIV awareness will reach even the most underprivileged of Syracusans, preventing tragedies like the one she endured so many years ago, but still remembers each day.<\/p>\n

Lanika\u2019s life was changed by HIV. But through outreach and community health initiatives, she is changing the lives of countless others, offering hope, treatment and a message of resilience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn life, there is purpose, and if you take the time to really search, you will find it, even in the midst of challenges,\u201d Lanika said. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the great things about life: we may have challenges, but there is always something to hope for.\u201d SWM<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Friday, March 10 is National Women and Girls HIV\/AIDS Awareness Day. For more information on ACR Health, visit acrhealth.org<\/a>. To find testing centers near you, visit gettested.cdc.gov. Lanika is photographed with her mother\u2019s nurse, Barbara Yancey- Brewer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Great Loss, Greater Gains By Samantha Mendoza | Photography by Alice G. Patterson Lanika Mabrey is a familiar figure on the Westside of Syracuse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[146,157,166,167,165],"class_list":["post-546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-alice-g-patterson","tag-inspire","tag-lanika-mabrey","tag-march-2017","tag-samantha-mendoza"],"gutentor_comment":1,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Z_Inspire_Lanika-Mabrey_0317_ONLINE.jpg?fit=5200%2C3436&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2994,"url":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=2994","url_meta":{"origin":546,"position":0},"title":"Membership has its privileges for local photographer","author":"Staff","date":"February 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"WBOC Leading Lady: Alice G. 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