Some 200 young men heard stark facts about the dangers of HIV/AIDS Thursday at Hialeah-Miami Lakes High School. The youths are members of the 5000 Role Model Excellence Project; the presentation was in observance of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

Edgar Resto, a health educator with the South Florida AIDS Network for 17 years, spoke to the assembly. In an interview, he cited several barriers to HIV/STD prevention education. In addition to a shortage of educational materials in Spanish and Creole, Resto said, "Some schools won't even allow me to show an infected penis on a screen, and it is important that they see it, not only because the students get a vivid picture of what could happen to them if they are not responsible, but also because they learn how to recognize the disease and act fast to treat it and not spread it."

The 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project, which aims to give at-risk boys alternatives to crime and violence, was founded by state Sen. Frederica Wilson in 1993 while she served on the Miami-Dade County School Board.

"A lot of people in school are having sex and stuff, and I think this talk really enlightened us in a lot of issues, like exactly how diseases get transmitted and how many diseases are out there," said a 15-year-old who joined the project two years ago and credits it with changing his life. "Instead of skipping class and doing nothing, you want to act right because we are role models and want to maintain it that way," he said. The program now serves more than 6,000 students in 101 county schools.

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