Raising Awareness about HIV in the Latino Community

For years, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation has made it a priority to work with the Latino community in San Francisco to raise awareness, reduce infections, and minimize the harmful impact of HIV/AIDS. The Foundation accomplishes this through its Latino Support Group (the longest-running bilingual Latino support group for HIV-positive Latinos in the country), community outreach events, HIV prevention efforts, and collaborations with Latino service providers. In recent months, the Foundation's efforts in this area were enhanced through several unique collaborations.

One such partnership is Cruzando Fronteras, a collaboration among fifty Bay Area Latino service providers and their clients infected and affected by HIV. Cruzando Fronteras was created to address the many challenges faced by Latinos living with HIV/AIDS when trying to access treatment and care, such as the fear of deportation, the stigma related to HIV, and the lack of Spanish speaking providers. Jorge Zepeda, a financial benefits counselor at the AIDS Foundation and one of the group's founders, said, "We wanted to find a simple way to mobilize and educate the Latino community while increasing access to HIV services."

At a July event sponsored by Cruzando Fronteras, nearly 100 people received information on financial benefits for both undocumented and documented people living with HIV. Housing and immigration rights' attorneys from the AIDS Legal Referral Panel and representatives from the Department of Human Services were on hand to provide their expertise. "Our goal is to ensure that clients have the information and knowledge they need to get connected to and remain in care," explains Don Soto, a Program Manager at Lutheran Social Services and an organizer of this event.

HIV awareness was the focus of a recent celebration in recognition of Dolores Park's one hundredth birthday and Mexican Independence Day. Recognizing the need for more HIV education and outreach in the Latino community, the Mexican Consulate partnered with two organizations--the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and Clinica Esperanza--to sponsor an HIV/AIDS awareness concert in the park on September 17th. This was the first time the consulate planned an event of this magnitude. Horacio Franco, one of Mexico's best known young musicians, headlined the concert and paid tribute to the vital work of the two agencies. Members of the AIDS Foundation's Latino Support Group distributed educational materials throughout the event.

National Latino AIDS Awareness Day, which occurred on October 15th, presented an additional opportunity to provide information and support to the Latino community. The California HIV/AIDS Hotline, operated by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, collaborated with volunteers from the Bay Area National Latino AIDS Awareness Day and Univision (KDTV-14), a station that serves eleven counties in Northern California with programming in Spanish.

From September 23rd through October 14th, Univision TV featured various guest speakers from the Latino community who provided information about HIV/AIDS, the impact of the epidemic on the Latino community, and personal stories of those affected by HIV. Viewers were provided with resources, including the number for the California HIV/AIDS Hotline (800-367-AIDS).

Each Friday evening during this 4- week period, the Hotline stayed open later than usual to take calls from those who had viewed the segments on Univision. Although the Hotline is always prepared to handle calls in Spanish and English, the Hotline recruited and trained additional bilingual volunteers to help handle the increase in Spanish-speaking callers.

"We were very encouraged by the results of the joint effort," said Keith Hocking, the director of the Hotline. "We received nearly 1,000 calls from people throughout Northern California who had seen the Univision announcements and wanted more information on getting tested for HIV and protecting themselves from getting infected."