BOSTON, Feb. 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Healing our Land, Inc. (HOLI) and The Massachusetts Black Legislative Caucus (MBLC) are calling on members of the community to attend a special forum to respond to "An Added Burden: The Impact of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic on Communities of Color in Massachusetts," made public last Dec. 1, World AIDS Day by The Massachusetts Department of Public Health. It will be held from 6-9 p.m. and also offers free on-site rapid HIV testing from 5-9 p.m. on Dotwell's mobile clinic.
Hosted by Rep. Gloria L. Fox, MBLC Vice-Chair and moderated by Min. Franklin Wendell Hobbs, the forum will include a panel of elected officials, HIV/AIDS community experts, Faith leaders and members of the community at large to discuss a full-scale perspective on HIV/AIDS and its impact on communities of color in Massachusetts, as outlined in the ground-breaking report issued by The Commonwealth on World AIDS Day 2007.
"Under the theme 'Prevention is Power' lives a reminder that our community is devastated by this terrible disease. It is within our power to talk about it, encourage more people to get tested, get informed, get involved and get treatment if they are HIV positive," said Rep. Fox.
"This disease is 100% preventable, and only if we break silence and stigma will we get to the root causes and stop new infections," she added.
Members of The Massachusetts Black Legislative Caucus were tested for HIV publicly last year at The State House on National HIV Testing Day as part of a call for communities of color to get tested for HIV on or after that day.
Contact: Minister Franklin Wendell Hobbs
617.594.9955
[email protected] or
Diego Sanchez, [email protected]
617.450.1524, 617.835.1455
SOURCE AIDS Action Committee
