Source: WFAE
The North Carolina Aids Action Network just announced an upcoming initiative focusing on increasing education and training providers about HIV in Black and Latina women, according to WFAE. A $250,000 grant provided by Gilead Science will underwrite the effort.
The Ella/Her Project is a combined effort between the NC AIDS Action Network, the Southern AIDS Coalition and the Latino Commission on AIDS, Latinos in the South program. North Carolina currently ranks 11th in the country for the highest rate of new HIV diagnosis. Black and Latina women had the highest rates of new infections.
However, while Black and Latina women are most impacted, their needs are often unaddressed. “Black and brown women have been left out of the conversation about HIV and have not been sort of at the top of the list in terms of prevention efforts,” said NC AIDS Action Network’s interim executive director, Janeen Gingrich.
The first step of The Ella/Her Project is to host a series of focus groups with Black and Latina women across the state. “There are a lot of unique ways that HIV impacts women, and so we’re wanting to be able to gather feedback from the women to be able to determine based on what we’ve heard, ‘You know, we think that we need a program that does this, or does that,’ and be able to implement those programs long term,” said Christina Adeleke, policy and communications manager at NC AIDS Action Network.Read more about this new HIV prevention here.
