Florida: Word Is Spread on AIDS

Nearly 200 students and parents attended an event called "Why Keep It a Secret? A Straight-Up Discussion About HIV/AIDS" last month at Booker T. Washington High School in Overtown, Miami. When the students were asked if someone close to them had contracted or died from HIV/AIDS, nearly half raised their hands.

"In the black community, it's a war," said Bonnette Jones, a guidance counselor at Dr. Michael Krop Senior High in North Miami Beach. "What are you going to do to be a soldier in this war?"

The workshop, which was sponsored by the Miami Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, is an example of the increasing attention being paid to AIDS in the black community. In Florida, blacks make up just 14 percent of the population but 56 percent of HIV cases, according to the state Department of Health.

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• As part of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day on Feb. 7, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and outreach teams went door-to-door in the city's hardest-hit neighborhoods to distribute information on HIV/AIDS and testing.

• Thomas Spann, HIV/AIDS program coordinator with the Miami Chapter of the American Red Cross, said his organization is using culturally specific education and prevention courses to teach the facts about AIDS. The Red Cross has also partnered with local school districts to provide free peer-education courses.

• According to Jacquelyn White, district supervisor for the Miami-Dade County Public Schools HIV/AIDS Education program, the district established its HIV/AIDS Education Office in 1987: It provides training for faculty, staff, parents and students. The district will observe AIDS Education week May 3-7.

Back to other news for April 21, 2004