A&PI WELLNESS CENTER STAFF, CLIENTS AND COMMUNITY JOIN TO OBSERVE WORLD AIDS DAY
A&PI Wellness Center staff, clients and community joined together to observe the 23rd annual World AIDS Day. Activities ranged from participating with the community nationally in AIDS.gov's "Facing AIDS" campaign, coming to a film screening, recording interviews for Outlook Video, and our banner event, our panel discussion and lunch. Read more about what we did below!
New Voices: Emerging Research on HIV and A&PIs
This year's banner World AIDS Day event happened on November 30. We brought together researchers from the community to explore new data and different points of view on the HIV epidemic in the community. Daniel Toleran of Asian American Recovery Services talked about Project 3-3-3, a risk reduction program for Chinese, Vietnamese and Filipinos in San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. Results from the intervention are still being analyzed. Ben Cabangun of A&PI Wellness Center talked about his study on Filipino identity and how that affected safer sex practices.
Check out press coverage of the panel below:
AQU25A Screens "Girl, Positive"
AQU25A hosted its inaugural World AIDS Day Movie Night on Tuesday, November 30. About 15 AQU25A participants, ages 16-24, attended the movie night and were able to enjoy a nice dinner, mingle and socialize, and watch "Girl, Positive."
"Girl, Positive," the Lifetime television hit starring Jennie Garth, is the story of a popular high school teenager who finds out that a boy she slept with is HIV positive and the challenges that face her both at home and at school. This movie allowed participants to relate the film to their own high school experience and if they were in the movie themselves.
A critical discussion followed the movie, engaging participants to talk about HIV/AIDS openly with one another. A hot topic of discussion was the status of being HIV-positive. "What would happen if I became HIV-positive? How would I feel? What would I do? And what would this mean?" Participants were able to look introspectively at how their lives would change if they became HIV-positive. We also discussed what the next steps should be. Encouraging and motivating one another, participants vowed to get involved in the cause and fight to eliminate HIV/AIDS. We plan to continue on this event on World AIDS Das for years to come.
Saurabh Bajaj on Outlook Video
A&PI Wellness Center Development Director, Saurabh Bajaj, was recently interviewed for Outlook Video, a monthly LGBT newsmagazine aired throughout California. Saurabh talks about the new CDC study on men who have sex with men in 21 cities and reflects on the work that still needs be done in the community.
Catch the entire World AIDS Day episode on the following local cable channels in the Bay Area:
San Francisco: Channel 29, Sunday, December 5 at 5pm
Mountain View: Channel 15 every Thursday in December at 8:30pm
San Jose: Channel 15 every Monday in December at 8:30
Visit Outlook Video for the full schedule for the Greater Bay Area, statewide and Arizona.
James Kyson Lee's Special World AIDS Day Message
James Kyson Lee, one of the stars from NBC's "Heroes" sat down with the Banyan Tree Project for World AIDS Day. James wants the Asian & Pacific Islander community, especially A&PI youth, to learn the facts about HIV. We are all at risk, but we can protect ourselves with knowledge and action. Talk about HIV-for you, for me, for everyone!
Blogging for World AIDS Day
We'd like to also thank Will, Sonia, and Adam for taking the time to write such though provoking pieces for World AIDS Day!
In case you missed it, A&PI Wellness Center's Banyan Tree Project was recently asked by theBody.com to participate in a series of blog posts for World AIDS Day. This special series for World AIDS Day captures the diversity of the AIDS community. Through the rest of the month and beginning of December, postings from clients, staff and community advocates will be appearing on The Body's special World AIDS Day page. Read posts from Will, Sonia, and Adam, or explore all the posts written for World AIDS Day
Facing AIDS with AIDS.GOV
During our two World AIDS Day events, attendees were invited to take part in AIDS.gov's Facing AIDS campaign, which happens annually on December 1. Each participant writes a sign containing the message "Facing AIDS" and takes a photo with it. Photos from around the country are upload to the Facing AIDS Flickr group. So far, over a thousand photos have been submitted, and more are being uploaded. Check out all the photos here. How are you Facing AIDS?
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