Sorority partners with La Casa to raise HIV/AIDS awareness, pass legislation

While looking up current events last fall, members of Latina sorority Gamma Phi Omega learned about H.R. 2736: HIV Emergency Local Partnership Act of 2007. The bill, based on research that shows minorities are most often affected by HIV/AIDS, would provide extra help to minorities who have the disease. Since then, Gamma Phi Omega senior Adrienne Garcia said she and her sisters have made a commitment to bring awareness of HIV/AIDS to students.\n“Since the beginning of the semester, some of us were doing some research (on the bill),” Garcia said. “It was affecting the Latino community, but (HIV/AIDS) is also not talked about highly amongst other things in the Latino community.” \nThe sorority has held several events around campus to raise awareness.\nThe bill will help reserve money for grants that would be given to health clinics in states where minorities are most affected by HIV/AIDS, according to GovTrack.us, a Web site that provides information on Congress. Latinos make up 19 percent of all people infected, according to the bill.\nLast semester, the soroity hosted an event during which someone from the Indiana State Department of Health came to talk to people about the disease, Garcia said. This semester, Gamma Phi Omega continued its support for the bill and HIV/AIDS awareness by showing the movie “Philadelphia” in conjunction with La Casa Latino Cultural Center. The movie focuses on a successful lawyer who is discriminated against after his coworkers discover he has HIV/AIDS.\nLa Casa has also held several programs to help raise awareness of HIV/AIDS. After receiving grants last semester, La Casa was able to turn the center into a testing site for HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, La Casa Director Lillian Casillas said. La Casa coordinated the program in conjunction with Bloomington Hospital’s Positive Link, which provides services for people with HIV/AIDS.\nCasillas said she was surprised by the large turnout and hopes to do it again in the near future. \nLa Casa also tries to break Latino taboos by allowing Positive Link to hold events in the center on the weekends, she said. The events help mothers and daughters talk about HIV/AIDS while creating craft projects. \nGarcia said she and other Gamma Phi Omega members want to continue planning events that will not only raise awareness for the bill, but will also help IU students become more knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS. \n“(Students should) do more research, learn what the bill is and follow the link to sign the petition,” Garcia said. \nGarcia also urges students to write to their local representatives to get the bill passed. According to GovTrack.us, H.R. 2736 has only been introduced in the House of Representatives and has not yet gone up for debate.