Sister to Sister
Nearly 80% of new HIV cases in New York State occur in minority communities. HIV rates are especially high among women, and rising sharply in the African American population. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports during 2000-2003, HIV/AIDS rates for African American females were 19 times the rates for white females. In 2003 alone, the rate of AIDS in African American women was 25 times the rate for white women. Read full story...
One way AIDS Community Resources responds to this emergency is through the HOPE Alliance - a partnership of caring individuals working with committed church and neighborhood organizations in the Mohawk Valley, HOPE Alliance works hard to prevent the spread of HIV infection in minority communities.
Yet another way AIDS Community Resources responded to the HIV women’s health crisis in 2005 was adopting the CDC’s SISTA program (Sisters Informing Sisters on the Topic of AIDS) to help stop the spread of HIV/ADS among African American women in Syracuse and Central New York. Wenona Wake conducts the five-part training program she says is turning women’s lives around.
“I’m all about building self-esteem, pride and confidence,” says Wenona Wake, ACR’s Director of Prevention Services. SISTA seeks to persuade black and Hispanic females to demand their sexual partners use condoms and practice safer sex. “Women have problems coming up with the courage to demand safety. We have sex, but we don’t talk about sex, and we don’t stand up to our men,” Wake says.
The Centers for Disease Control says the leading cause of HIV infection among African American women is heterosexual contact. SISTA teaches women to negotiate their own sexual safety and persuade their mate to use condoms and/or teach women how to use female condoms.
Often a woman believes she is in a long-standing monogamous relationship, only to discover her husband has been having unprotected sex outside the relationship. If she chooses not to leave the man, how does a woman protect herself from HIV infection? How does she change the ground rules of their sexual relationship after so long a time?
“Women will say ‘my boyfriend would leave me if I demanded that he use a condom’ and we tell them to evaluate that comment. Do they really believe they won’t be able to pay their bills or take care of their children if their man leaves? Is that necessarily true? And why would they think it’s okay to stay in a relationship where a condom is more important than a woman?” Wake asks.
SISTA training consists of five two-hour sessions covering cultural and gender pride, HIV overview, aggression versus assertiveness, behavioral change and coping.
The first step is the most important, Wake says. “First I go in and talk about being a proud African American woman and at first you get groans and rolling of eyes. Later on you get smiles, and comments like ‘you go girl’.”
Wake keeps the training real. What women of color hear on the street and in their bedrooms is often a message far different from the one Wake teaches. Many of the women, both young and mature, have already compromised their lives in some fashion and think it’s too late to so easily change their habits and their reputations.
SISTA focuses women’s energies on their life to come. “We give them facts about HIV, about how to stand up for themselves, and how to live from this point on as a confident, proud, assertive and beautiful black woman.”
SISTA equips women to then share the HIV prevention message with other women – family, friends, church members and neighbors. These peer educators receive comprehensive free training and support and earn a stipend for their efforts. They speak at meetings or simply distribute materials in their place of business, salons, coffee houses and shops. To learn more about SISTA, contact AIDS Community Resources at 1-800-475-2430.