HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death for African American women ages 25-34 and the 3rd leading cause of death for African American women ages 35-44. (CDC, 2004)

Bienestar Human Services

Bienestar

Bienestar Human Services, Inc. (Bienestar) was founded in 1989 as an organization that focused primarily on the HIV/AIDS service needs of Latinos in Southern California. Today, Bienestar is the leading community provider of a plethora of HIV/AIDS prevention and supportive services for Latinos in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Diego, California.

With funding from AED, Bienestar developed a program (En Acción) to address HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination that exists within Latino communities. En Acción had three core components:

  1. Creating “Agents of Change” to increase the visibility of people who are infected or affected by HIV/AIDS;
  2. Creating a local social marketing campaign targeted toward the Spanish language media in Southern California; and
  3. Conducting educational presentations and forums to educate community members and public policy officials of the pre-existing negative assumptions, beliefs, and prejudices that contribute to HIV/AIDS stigma.

More details on the outcomes of this project, under the first phase of the National HIV/AIDS Anti-stigma Initiative, will be posted shortly.

Posted 27/06/08:
AED's new fact sheet is now available on the home page!

Posted 21/05/08:
New HIV/AIDS-related stigma Literature Review available. Please visit the Resource section to download the document.