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The Bay Area Reporter Online | Shanti marks 35 years of caring
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When Dr. Charles Garfield founded Shanti in 1974 he could hardly imagine that his fledgling agency would become a lifeline of hope for thousands of gay men just a decade later.
A Sanskrit word meaning "inner peace" or "tranquility," Shanti's main mission is to train volunteers on how to provide emotional and practical support to persons living with life-threatening or chronic illnesses. Over the last three and a half decades it has trained 15,000 volunteers and provided 3 million hours of service to clients.
"They have a very proud history," said Tom Nolan, executive director of Project Open Hand, which shares administrative costs with Shanti and serves as its landlord in the city's Polk Gulch area.
At the time of its inception, it was a revolutionary idea in the world of health care. Garfield had launched his new initiative in response to seeing cancer patients dying alone or with limited support from family and friends.
"I discovered a lost civilization on the cancer wards of San Francisco's hospitals, hordes of anxious people facing a limited life span," ...
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