National Latino AIDS Awareness Day (NLAAD) 2010 was celebrated on October 15th. NLAAD is a national media campaign with the purpose of raising awareness about HIV and AIDS in the Latino Community. Local community based organizations and coalitions are encouraged to plan events and receive support from the Latino Commission on AIDS and the Office of Minority Health.
This year, LLHC organized a series of education and testing events with a budget of $0. Thanks to a few months of planning, the support of the Board, and hours of volunteer service, we reached 120 members of New Orleans’ Spanish-speaking community and 31 of them received an HIV test! We want to thank our partners for all their help:
NO/AIDS Task Force (provided counselors, HIV tests, and the use of their mobile clinic)
Oportunidades NOLA at St Anna’s Medical Mission (invited us into their English classes and promoted the event to students)
La Semilla at First Grace United Methodist Church (invited us into their English class and promoted the event to students)
A special thanks to our amazing instructors: Christy Dimos, Haley Kerr, Robin Pearce, Matt Valletta, Brandon Benson and Heather Jordan.
We also want to share information about activities organized by our member organizations:
On October 15th, FACES/Children’s Hospital (a member of LLHC), TULANE Medical Mobil Unit, and Israeli Baptist Church in collaboration with other institutions (Latino Health Access Network, CubaNOLA Arts Collective, St. John #5 Camp ACE, Connect to Protect, New Orleans Faith Health Alliance, Honduran Consulate, American Red Cross, Kingsley House, Crescent House) organized a health fair to bring attention to NLAAD and raise HIV awareness among the Hispanic community in Central City New Orleans. Services offered included screenings for HIV, Hepatitis B and C, and blood pressure. Since music can bring the community together, there was also a DJ playing reggae and Latin music all afternoon. Participating agencies distributed information and prevention materials to the local community.
If you hosted an NLAAD event and would like us to include information about it on our website, please send your story and any photos to: info@llhc.info