Project Funders: The Southern REACH initiative

Entre Nosotras will have two clear components: implementation and replication. Implementation will begin in the northwestern tip of Volusia-Putnam County in North Florida with the organization Alianza de Mujeres Activas [AMA]. There will be extensive training of 10 lay-health workers, increasing their health literacy on women’s health:

• the transmission, prevention and testing of HIV and other STDs,
• the correlation between relationship violence, low self-esteem and pena (embarrassment) of accessing health services as barriers to prevention.

These lay-health workers will carry out a three-month campaign, each educating a minimum of 10 community women per month (300 total).

On December 4th, during the 4th Annual World AIDS Day Banquet, the RWHP was given a World AIDS Day 2009 Hero Award for our work and partnerships in the community to promote HIV/AIDS awareness.

Lessons learned will be gathered from a de-briefing and analysis of lay-health worker contact notes and applied to the replication of this project in Marion County. Navigation support will be available to participants.

The Rural Women's Health Project [RWHP] will partner with trusted farmworker community programs, including health service providers in the North Florida Farmworker Corridor (Marion, Eastern Putnam and NW Volusia Counties) and capacitate them to implement this HIV work. The project is a collaborative effort of farmworker support organizations, religious ministries, the Florida Department of Health, Bureau of HIV/AIDS Minority AIDS Coordinator Area 3/13 and the RWHP.