A new campaign urging the city’s Spanish-speaking residents to “get away from HIV” hit the streets in June, through a first-of-its-kind prevention program by the West Town-Humboldt Park HIV/AIDS Providers Association (WHAPA).
“I have a lot of faith in this campaign,” said Ramón Rodriguez of CALOR. “We’re making history.”
The campaign includes radio and TV spots and a poster headed for 55 CTA buses that criss-cross the West Town, Humboldt Park and Logan Square neighborhoods. Rodriguez noted that the HIV prevention effort is the first to target those areas and the first to be done in Spanish.
The project was unveiled at a press conference Wednesday, June 20, that included WHAPA representatives and consumers.
With the tag line of “Sacale el cuerpo al VIH”—get yourself away from HIV—the ads and poster are aimed at reducing the high rates of HIV/AIDS concentrated in the West Town area.
“Our community is in a state of emergency,” said Omar Lopez, co-chair of WHAPA. “We want to develop a consciousness in the consumers of health services.”
The three communities targeted have the highest concentrations of AIDS among Latinos in Chicago. The sharing of needles is the most prevalent mode of transmission.
The radio and TV spots feature a range of people—male, female, gay, straight and one intravenous drug user—before the tagline is given.
While providers at the press conference spoke of the pressing need to stop the spread of HIV in Latino communities, healthcare consumer Freddie Vasquez read a moving open letter about the cruelty he has endured from his family since he tested positive for HIV 16 years ago.
“Just because we have HIV, we’re not animals,” he said. “And we’re not going to contaminate them,” he said of his family.
Lopez said that a recent WHAPA survey found that while a majority of those interviewed know how to prevent HIV infection, they weren’t taking the necessary steps to protect themselves.
He cited the need to “emphasize a change in behavior.”
WHAPA is a coalition of 15 service providers and AIDS organizations including the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, CALOR: A Division of Anixter Center and Vida/ SIDA.