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National
Minority AIDS Council (NMAC)
Contact: Circe J. Gray Le
Compte
Director of Communications
1931 13th Street NW
* Washington, DC 20009
Telephone: (202) 483-NMAC
(6622) ext. 309
Web: http://www.nmac.org/
E-mail: communications@nmac.org
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NMAC Honors
National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness
Day
March 10, 2009 ~ Washington, DC
~ National Minority AIDS Council
(NMAC) honors National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NWGHAAD) this
March 10. Coordinated annually by the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS), Office of Women’s Health (OWH), NWGHAAD is geared to raise
awareness of the increasing impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls and encourage
women and girls to take action.
Paul A. Kawata, Executive Director of
NMAC says, “Women and girls of color tend to be primary caretakers in many of
our communities, putting the health and welfare of others before their own. This
situation has helped fuel HIV infections among minority women and girls, making
this year’s ‘HIV is Right Here at Home’, most timely.”
In 2005, women represented 26% of
new AIDS diagnoses, compared to only 11% of new AIDS cases reported in 1990. It
is one of the leading causes of death among African American and Latino women in
this country, and is the number one cause of death among black women aged
25-34.
NMAC has initiated several programs to mitigate the impact of
HIV/AIDS among women and girls, including the Women of Color Leadership
Institute (WOCLI) program, which builds the leadership skills of current and
future minority women leaders working in community-based organizations and
attending historically-black colleges and universities (HCBUs).
Ravinia
Hayes-Cozier, NMAC’s Director of Government Relations and Public Policy, says
“WOCLI ensures that women and girls of color have the skills they need to help
shape health care legislation impacting them, their families and their
communities, at all levels of government local, state and national.”
In addition
to WOCLI, NMAC also has helped raise HIV/AIDS awareness among women and
girls with its public service announcement (PSA), “African American Women GET REAL about
AIDS,” which features
three generations of African American women: NMAC Board Member and singing
legend, Nancy Wilson; Aspirations Holistic Tutorial Services Founder and CEO,
Archbishop Joyce Turner-Keller; and HIV/AIDS Activist, Ebony Gilreath.
Hayes-Cozier notes: “Together, they speak directly to the
audience about the importance of knowing their HIV status and discussing the
disease openly with family and friends. Women who are living with HIV/AIDS are
assured that they can live healthy lives by taking care of themselves, while
those who test negative are advised to ‘learn how to stay that way.’”
NMAC invites everyone to learn more about the WOCLI program and view the
PSA on its website at http://www.nmac.org/.
About NMAC
The National Minority
AIDS Council (NMAC) builds leadership within communities of color to address
challenges of HIV/AIDS. Since 1987, NMAC has advanced this mission through a
variety of programs and services, including: a public policy education program,
national and regional training conferences, a treatment and research program,
numerous publications and a website: http://www.nmac.org/. Today, NMAC is an
association of AIDS service organizations providing valuable information to
community-based organizations, hospitals, clinics and other groups assisting
individuals and families affected by the AIDS epidemic. NMAC's advocacy efforts
are funded through private funders and donors only.
For more information,
call NMAC directly at (202) 483-NMAC (6622) or communications@nmac.org. Visit the
agency online at http://www.nmac.org/, as
well as on http://www.facebook.com/ and
on http://www.wikipedia.com/. Pictures
and video clips from past NMAC events are available from MyPhotoAlbum.com (nmacpics.myphotoalbum.com/), and http://www.youtube.com/, respectively.
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