National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
Life Foundation is organizing local churches to host AIDS awareness events, and is asking for assistance to send pediatric clients to a camp for HIV positive children and their families
Monday, May 19th is the 4th annual National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. This event is locally coordinated by Life Foundation, who works in partnership with the Banyan Tree Project, a coalition of AIDS organizations across the country who work to educate Asian and Pacific Islander communities about HIV/AIDS. Honolulu will join nine other cities across the U.S. in recognizing National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, including Washington DC, Boston, San Francisco and Chicago.
This year, in honor of National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, Life Foundation is organizing speaking events at various churches and places of worship across Oahu to engage Asian and Pacific Islander religious communities in the fight against AIDS. Life Foundation is also working to send 5 of its Asian/Pacific Islander HIV positive pediatric clients and their families to a camp on the mainland for HIV positive children. Life Foundation is seeking monetary and in-kind donations of airline miles to help pay for their airfares.
Anyone interested in requesting a speaking event on HIV/AIDS at their place of worship, or those able to help fly Life Foundation’s young clients to the mainland for the camp can contact Melanie Moore at 521-2437 ext. 252 for more information.
National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day was created because HIV is on the rise in Asian, Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian communities nation-wide. Between 1999 and 2003, AIDS diagnoses among Asians, Pacific Islanders and Native Hawaiians increased by 34%. Although these ethnicities make up less than 5% of the total population in the U.S., they constitute over half of the population in Hawaii. Due to the traditional close family ties of these communities, stigma and shame against HIV play a huge role in the access these populations have to HIV testing and care services.
