Destiney Burt/ Staff Writer
Destiney.burt@fiusm.com
FIU-BRIDGE partnered with Union Positiva, Spectrum Programs, Mixto Music and Dieste on Friday, Jan. 23, to promote HIV/AIDS awareness among Hispanic students in the community ranging from 18-24 years of age.
The Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration offered a grant to FIU-BRIDGE, one that would go towards a project promoting health as well as substance abuse, HIV and Hepatitis C prevention.
The project FIU-BRIDGE is working on is the Miami-Dade partnership for preventing health risks among young adults.
“This is for FIU students; the nature of the grant was to focus on a minority group and because we [are] a Hispanic serving institution, that’s what we focused on and got the funding for,” said Dr. Eric Wagner, the executive director for FIU-BRIDGE.
Some shared their excitement over the event’s turnout.
“I’m glad people came out for the free HIV testing,” said Sofia B. Fernandez, a public health doctoral student. “I feel like it’s something that hopefully the students will take advantage of. We actually brought the van to the students because it’s convenient and confidential.”
The event was not just for FIU students but also Miami-Dade County in general, since it is ranked number one in the state of Florida for the number of new HIV and AIDS cases.
To gain more attention, FIU-BRIDGE has Miss Hivaria, a representative they enlisted to help promote awareness of HIV and AIDS.
“Miss Hivaria was created to represent people with HIV, which is 35 million…the size of a country. [She] has been doing appearances as a playful way to use the Miss Universe event for the forces of good,” said Wagner.
According to her Facebook page, Miss Hivaria spent the week of the Miss Universe pageant representing the Republic of Hivaria.
“I hope that capitalizing on Miss Universe and having this campaign running right now will spread awareness about the campaign and what our ultimate goal is, which is encouraging people to get tested and being open about their status [to] prevent the spread of HIV,” said Fernandez.
Some believe that having a grant that targets one minority group will be beneficial to helping BRIDGE achieve its goal of spreading awareness.
“Sometimes certain illnesses affect a certain minority [group] more and if it’s a growing population you want to make sure you are targeting a specific population,” said Denise Aiyedatiwa, public health graduate student. “It’s easier if you pick a certain population to reach your goal.”
The goal is to promote awareness, screenings and safe behavior for young Hispanic adults.
“Hispanic folks are much less likely to engage in HIV testing, which is another reason to spread awareness to the Hispanic community,” said Wagner. “Hispanic men are three times more likely than non-Hispanic white students to contract HIV, and Hispanic women are four times as likely than non-Hispanic white women.”
Even for the non-Hispanic community at FIU, it is still important to be aware of the consequences of the disease and the importance of taking preventative measures.
“I’m not Hispanic but I still feel like this is a great opportunity for everyone to learn from,” said Aiyedatiwa.
According to Fernandez, this project has been a hands-on community collaboration and a great opportunity to get involved.
“This is also a good opportunity to use our partnering and resources for a good cause,” said Fernandez.
Students can follow Miss Hivaria on Twitter for updates on when and where the van will be in the community for free HIV testing.
To raise the awareness of the public could help prevent the spreading of this virus.