Sena Gates, 48, advocate
By Helen Altonn
for people with HIV-AIDS
Star-BulletinSena Gates, who won many battles as a community activist and advocate for Hawaii's HIV-AIDS population, lost a private battle with cancer Saturday. Gates 48, directed Hawaii's Community Health Outreach Work (CHOW) project to prevent AIDS for about nine years.
She was instrumental with a few others in getting state legislation allowing for a needle exchange program for AIDS prevention -- a program being used as a model in other states, said Peter M. Whiticar, chief of the state Health Department's STD/AIDS Prevention Branch.
“She was a woman who spent her professional life fighting for something she believed in -- in public health,” he said.
“Sometimes it has been a lonely fight. I think we all owe a lot to her. She saved many lives in Hawaii and raised our consciousness about how we deal with drug users, and public health implications of how we deal with these people.”
An article written by Gates, Whiticar and three others on Hawaii's Statewide Syringe Exchange Program appears in the September issue of the prestigious American Journal of Public Health. It was submitted about eight months ago, Whiticar said.
Suzette Smetka, who became acting CHOW director when Gates' health worsened earlier this year, said, “She fought hard for this program and I think it may not have existed and made it through the years without her.”
Smetka said the needle exchange program “has prevented an HIV epidemic among injecting drug users here. That's been very important work for the entire state . . . She should certainly be remembered for the work she has done.”
Gates earned a master's degree in public administration about a year ago while running the outreach project and taking care of a family, Whiticar said.
“She had a lot going on at the same time.”
Gates' daughter, Molly Gates of Canada, and son, Jared, of the Big Island, gave up their jobs to help care for their mother over the past months.
Also caring for her were her partner, Tony Volage, and his son Brandon.
Gates was born in Tallahassee, Fla., and lived there until she was 19, Molly said.
“She has always been really brave and out there and she took off and moved to San Francisco. She had never been anywhere.”
She had founded the Hawaii Women's Political Caucus and was a member of the Community Housing Resource Board, Affordable Housing Alliance and the city's Special Needs Committee.
After working briefly at the state Health Department, she ran unsuccessfully for the Honolulu City Council. A longtime Waimanalo resident, she represented the Keolu-Waimanalo-Hawaii Kai-Kahala district on the Democratic ticket.
Whiticar said Gates started an outreach project for injection drug users on a two-year federal grant.
“She found she was not going to do much for this population unless they got needle exchange.”
So she and others started drafting legislation for a program, he said.
She stopped work at CHOW in February to fight her cancer but “always held the hope she was going to be able to come back,” he said.
After a private family service, an open reception will be held at 6 p.m. Friday at her home at 41-912 Laumilo St., Waimanalo.
Her body will be cremated and the ashes spread privately by the family.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to a charity of choice.
Evangeline “Ah Lan” Ahina-Ah Quin, 80, of Hauula died Sunday in Hauula. Born in Hauula, she is survived by sons James M. Jr., William and John Ah Quin; daughter Evan-Lou Meafou; sister Florence “Ah Moe” Nihipali; 13 grandchildren; and 18 great-grandchildren. Services: 1 p.m. Saturday at Greater Mount Zion Holiness Church. Call after 9 a.m. Burial: Hauula Cemetery.
