Allen Temple Baptist Church will hold a day of barbecue, music, free HIV testing and rallying to engage the community in fighting an epidemic that has killed millions and hit poor, black communities especially hard.
Also on the program will be a performance by local youth musicians The PopLyfe Project. Comedian and youth activist Donald Lacy will be master of ceremonies.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, black patients made up 45 percent of newly reported HIV infections in the U.S. in 2006, despite being 12 percent of the country’s population.
Officials at the California Prevention and Education Project, or CAL-PEP, say black men and women account for more than half of all new HIV cases in Alameda County.
Oakland is the largest city by population in Alameda County, and accounts for between 54 percent and 66 percent of the county’s new cases each year, according to LaNiece Jones, a promoter for CAL-PEP.
“The situation was so serious in the Oakland area that local officials were the first in the nation, in 1998, to declare a state of emergency regarding the AIDS crisis among African-Americans,” Jones said.
The program will run from 4 to 6 p.m. and the free Rapid HIV testing will run from 5 to 9 p.m.
For details, call CAL-PEP at 510-874-7850
Read Also
