For Immediate Release

For More Information Contact
Mitchell Friedman, APR
415-292-3420 x515
mitchell@apiwellness.org

Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center Receives $180,000 Grant from Ford Foundation to Combat HIV/AIDS Stigma
San Francisco (Feb. 20, 2004) — Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center (A&PI Wellness Center) has received an $180,000, 18-month grant through the HIV/AIDS Anti-Stigma Initiative, one of only five such grants awarded nationwide. Managed by the Academy for Educational Development (AED) Center on AIDS and Community Health, the Initiative is funded by the Ford Foundation and is one of the largest grants ever awarded to address HIV/AIDS stigma in the United States.

With this funding, A&PI Wellness Center will develop an anti-stigma campaign targeting monolingual Chinese and Vietnamese people in the San Francisco Bay Area. The campaign will include public service announcements, radio and television talk show appearances, editorial coverage, advertisements, and video documentaries featuring local Chinese and Vietnamese community leaders who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender; queer; living with HIV; or family members.

“For a long time, we’ve come up against the intersecting stigmas around being immigrant, gay, and/or living with HIV/AIDS in A&PI communities,” said John Manzon-Santos, A&PI Wellness Center executive director. “We’ll use the opportunity provided by Ford Foundation funding to address stigma head on.”

A&PI Wellness Center will put together a Community Advisory Board to work closely with staff and other volunteers recruited to participate in the anti-stigma campaign. For information about participating or other campaign details, contact Mitchell Friedman, APR, at mitchell@apiwellness.org or 415.292.3420 x515.

A&PI Wellness Center educates, supports, empowers, and advocates for Asian and Pacific Islander (A&PI) communities, particularly A&PIs living with or at-risk for HIV/AIDS. Founded in 1987 as a grassroots response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in communities of color, it is the oldest nonprofit organization in North America targeting A&PI communities around sexual health and HIV/AIDS services. A&PI Wellness Center is based in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood and operates an office in downtown Oakland; provides services regionally, statewide, and nationally; and maintains linkages with non-governmental organizations throughout Asia and the Pacific. For more information, see www.apiwellness.org.

The other organizations receiving HIV/AIDS Anti-Stigma grants from AED are African Services Committee in New York; Bienestar Human Services, Inc. in Los Angeles; South Carolina African American HIV/AIDS Council in Columbia, SC; and Us Helping Us in Washington, DC.

AED is one of the world’s foremost nonprofit human and social development organizations. Based in Washington, DC, AED operates 250 programs to help individuals and communities improve their education, health, environment, and economic opportunities in more than 80 countries and all 50 U.S. states. See www.aed.org for information.

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