To promote dynamic communication between organizations and Hispanic immigrant communities on the topic of HIV/AIDS and interrelated issues.
Promover comunicación dinámica entre organizaciones y las comunidades inmigrantes hispanas sobre el tema de VIH/SIDA y otras temas relacionados.
The VIA Initiative is a project of the Rural Women’s Health Project. The RWHP, for 20 years, has used innovative approaches to build health literacy and increase access to both health care services and preventative behaviors in Hispanic immigrant communities.
There is a void in HIV/AIDS incidence data that specifically focuses on Hispanic Immigrants in the South as a unique community. This is critical to quantifying prevalence and addressing prevention. Both risk factors and health access barriers for documented and undocumented Hispanics in the region, combined with the anti-immigrant fervor in the US, exacerbate their potential risk for HIV infection.
The VIA Initiative illuminates the issues affecting Hispanic Immigrants in the rural South. By disseminating the findings, VIA broadens the data pool, informs health care providers and policy brokers and mobilizes the Hispanic Immigrant community's to take action around HIV/AIDS prevention.
