This past weekend marked the fourth annual Hip Hop for HIV concert in Houston, Texas. Thousands of young people from the area go through an intensive four hours of HIV educaiton sessions. At the end of the day, they learn their status and are treated to a congratulatory concert with some big names in hip hop. This concert has been growing every year. More youth are finding this an incentive to learn more about this epidemic that kills thousands of their peers each year.
What do you think about efforts like the Hip Hop for HIV concert? Should more events like this occur throughout the country to encourage young adults to learn about HIV and their personal statuses?
Youth peer educators on HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention in Illinois. "We can be the generation to stamp out AIDS".
I think that if it's growing, it's working. and if it's working, they should continue doing it. I think its great that everyone gets tested and that they learn about the virus. It would be wounderful if more would be initiated in the country.
ReplyDeletewe did a similar event at Roosevelt University in chicago when we launched the BASUAH program. We had testing going on during the concert which featured local artists. We had a long line of teens and young adults waiting to be tested, and we had only planned for 4 testers since we didn't know how it would be received. We ended up testing about 80 people that day but had to send many away because we didn't have enough test kits and some people got tired of the wait. I would say this is definately a good way to educate and test people.
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