Tony Wafford with the National Action Network,
Women at Risk, UCLA and Charles Drew University
 
"BREAKING THE SILENCE"

Black, Latino Women Break Their Silence on HIV/AIDS
 

Approximately 150 Black and Latino women broke their silence about HIV/AIDS during an elegant and intimate discussion over dinner and dessert at the Japanese American Cultural Center on Thursday, November 5 2009.
 

Merck & Co., Inc., National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Women at Risk, UCLA Care's Clinical AIDS Research & Education, and Charles Drew University also sponsored the special event.

"One really important thing I always want people to know about this topic in particular is that although one out of four women in the U.S. are Black and Latino, four out of five HIV cases are Black and Latino. It doesn't mean that we're all infected or anything like that.  It just means that among the HIV cases, we're way over-represented," said Nina Harawa, MPH, Ph.D, a faculty member at Drew University and a convener of "Breaking the Silence."

Dr. Harawa said the more important theme of the event was that women become more honest with themselves about potential risks that occur within relationships. "Often times we might get caught up in whether someone has cheated on us, and we might get mad or think about that other person but we don't necessarily think about what this means for our health," she said.

Dr. Harawa moderated the evening's panel discussion, which also included actress Sheryl Lee Ralph ("Divas Simply Singing), Camila Crespo and Tania Rodriguez (PALS for Health), Pam Yelsky (Women at Risk), Brenda Stone Browder (author, "On the Up and Up," which details how she survived being married to J.L. King, a man on the down low) and activist Yolanda Salinas ("Latinas Living with HIV/AIDS").

During their "Herstory of Women and HIV" presentation, Ms. Crespo and Ms. Rodriguez gave an HIV/AIDS infection timeline that documented how the rates among women grew.  They provide training in language competency, cultural sensitivity and HIV information, but about four years ago they discovered that information exclusive to women and HIV was missing.

We became very frustrated because what we were seeing in the clinics and out in the community wasn't what we were being taught ... the Centers for Disease Control was reporting (in 1981) that non-homosexual folks were not at apparent danger to contracting HIV and actually during that time, AIDS was referred to as GRID, which was Gay Related Immune Deficiency so that name in itself was already excluding women, because women didn't consider themselves in this category, and therefore didn't consider themselves being at risk," Ms. Rodriguez explained.

From day one, women were there and from day one, women were not being talked about, they said, but by 1988 women were named the fastest growing population with HIV.

Ms. Ralph gave a stirring rendition of R&B and Jazz artist Diane Reeves' "Endangered Species," before she admonished everyone to raise their voices louder against the AIDS pandemic.  Five years ago, she began touring the country with a show she wrote called "Sometimes I Cry," which highlights real women's real stories wrapped around HIV/AIDS, because there is much work to do, she said.

"The change that we need to see around this disease begins with each and every one of us. Infected or affected, if you are living and breathing on this planet, it's our issue.  One out of four young women across America, every color, every race, every culture, has been diagnosed to be already infected with a sexually transmitted disease. When the CDC can make that announcement and we still remain silent, then we get the results that we deserve," Ms. Ralph said.

"There's clearly common ground between Black and Latino women, because when we talk about the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the women's issues are so parallel, so similar in that they don't talk about it as our women don't talk about it," Mr. Wafford said. In response, he created NAN's I Choose Life campaign, which is a five-year, five-state campaign that partners with social, civic, civil rights organizations and the medical community to address HIV/AIDS (STD's), diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure, mental health, and obesity, five major interrelated health concerns and disparities facing the African American community.

"My goal is to engage and encourage Black men to get involved because it's up to us to rescue and reconstruct ourselves and save our sisters. We can't claim to be fathers, and husbands and protectors of our community and our families and our wives if we're afraid to talk about HIV and AIDS and all the other SDT’s that are affecting our communities," Mr. Wafford said.

Another way to reduce the number of infections among Black and Latino women is to take the message directly to the youth, according to Joandrea Reynolds, founder of End to Begin-ings, a grassroots organization that provides education to female adolescents and youth. 
 
"We need to go to where they are and come down to their level. We need to speak to them and not at them at their schools, libraries, any public forums where we know the youth and adolescents will be because we know they are the future.  They are the ones that are going to be affected by this disease as it's spreading so rapidly so we have to go find them ... we need to spread this message and on a consistent basis and not let it die ... it's a never dying process," Ms. Reynolds said.
 

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