The Gay and Lesbian AIDS Education Initiative is launching a new plan to educate Latina community members. The initiative, Promotoras, is a partnership with Puentes de Salud to empower Latina sexual-health workers to provide comprehensive sex education to their constituencies. The grassroots initiative is funded by a $5,000 grant from Women’s Way. Since the fall, GALAEI has been providing training, in Spanish, to 10 Puentes workers who will be tasked with sharing the lessons. “What we propose doing is that the promotoras reach out to 10 Latinas each time and hopefully that will network out to 100,” said GALAEI executive director Elicia Gonzales. “We anticipate that they will advocate in the community and continue to have an ongoing conversation.” The program will primarily target the Mexican community in South Philadelphia. “GALAEI has had a longstanding relationship in South Philly, primarily with the Mexican Consulate. We have provided HIV testing and workshops in Spanish to the community and have wanted to work with the Mexican community for some time on this because there is such an absence of support and services,” Gonzales said. It’s not the first time GALAEI has partnered with Puentes de Salud, an agency Gonzales considers a great resource and liaison between the community and health providers. “We had worked with them before and we trained the promotoras on HIV/AIDS. They have already gone through the HIV 101 course so that they could go out and talk to the community. Now, we are hearing from them that they need more and are hungry for more information.” Right now, the Promotoras Sexual Health Initiative is only supported by the Women’s Way grant, but Gonzales said she hopes the program will leverage additional funding to extend the curriculum. The training is conducted in part by GALAEI bilingual youth education coordinator Karla Diaz. The promotoras give Diaz feedback based on their work, which helps her tailor the curriculum, covering a plethora of sexual-health topics such as reproductive health, anatomy, HIV/AIDS, STIs, sexual orientation and gender identity and childbirth — all within a cultural framework. Gonzales said LGBT issues are woven throughout the entire curriculum and mentioned in a calculated way that does not separate the community from the various matters discussed. For more information on the initiative, email Gonzales at [email protected].
