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Mother, Daughter Team Encourages HIV/AIDS Awareness in Minorities
Written by Mason Anderson, Staff Writer, RedCross.org
May 6, 2002 — The disease is the leading killer of 18-35 year-old female African Americans. In 2000, it infected more than 8,000 Hispanics in the United States. Although the daily headlines about HIV/AIDS have gone away, the disease has not, particularly among minority groups in the United States. While African American and Hispanic communities each constitute an estimated 12 percent of the nation's population, they also account for more than half of all people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS each year.
Instructors focus on teaching youth the ways in which HIV/AIDS can be prevented.
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As an American Red Cross HIV/AIDS instructor at the Sacramento Sierra chapter, Patrici Rice-Griffin was all too aware of the devastating impact the disease is having on minority groups in the United States. One day, unable to get the statistics out of her mind, Rice-Griffin came home and told her mother, Patricia Huerta, some of the sobering facts.
"I had no idea the problem was still so bad," said Huerta.
Not one to sit back and watch problems get worse, Huerta asked her daughter how she could help. After receiving Red Cross HIV/AIDS instructor training herself, Huerta joined Rice-Griffin and, together, they are traveling throughout the Sacramento community, educating residents about the disease.
"I talk about it on the streets, in schools, everywhere. Just the other day someone came up to me and I told him I was an HIV/AIDS instructor. He actually said to me 'I don't have to worry about that. It's a gay white male disease'. I can't believe people still think that. That is why I'm an instructor — to dispel these myths and to teach people the truths about AIDS," Huerta said.
Although it is not known exactly why minority groups suffer greater percentages of infections, health officials believe significant contributing factors include continued disparities in health care and education between economic classes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). With no cure available, the greatest chance of stopping the spread of the disease is through education, cites the CDC — and that is exactly what Red Cross instructors like Huerta and Rice-Griffin are doing.
Since 1985, the Red Cross has worked with the CDC to provide innovative lifesaving HIV prevention education to more than 18 million people across the country, targeting youth and minorities. Many chapters work in collaboration with community-based organizations to provide HIV prevention education to people in schools, places of worship and community centers.
"Our priority is to educate people on how the disease is transmitted," said Huerta. "People still have that 'It can't happen to me' philosophy. We are there to tell them 'Yes, it can' and show them ways to prevent it, like having protected sex. Abstaining is of course the best way to avoid sexual transmission of the disease, but that's not always realistic. So we stress to youth that if they are going to be sexually active, they must protect themselves."
Another topic the duo stresses is the possibility of disease transmission through substance abuse, especially for intravenous drug users. Sharing needles and trading sex for drugs are two ways that substance abuse can lead to HIV and other STD transmission, putting sex partners and children of drug users at risk as well, according to the CDC.
Despite the sensitive subjects Huerta and Rice-Griffin teach, the two never get embarrassed working together.
"People always ask me if it makes me uncomfortable having my mother around while I'm talking about sex and condoms," laughed Rice-Griffin. "It doesn't at all — we have such a close relationship. My mother raised me to be very open and I attribute my participation in the HIV/AIDS program to her. I could never have done this without her."
Related Links
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