World AIDS Day Program
Date and Time
Dec 1, 2018 5:00 pm
Location
Hyattsville
5331 Baltimore Ave, Hyattsville, Maryland, 20781
Dec 1, 2018 5:00 pm
Hyattsville
This event is a conversation about health for black women by black women, living with and at risk for HIV in the greater Washington, DC area. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. The black woman is traditionally the caretaker for her family. Not only her nuclear family, but also her extended relatives as well. This leaves the black woman vulnerable to illness and disease due to being focused on making sure everyone around her is okay before she assesses her own state of well-being. This puts black women at risk for HIV/AIDS as well as other illness and disease. Some black women living in disenfranchised neighborhoods don't define health as WHO does, and often times use the emergency room as a primary care physician, a quick fix in order to quickly return to caring for her family. Too often her mental and social health isn't seen as an integral part of her health.
This World AIDS Day program will feature 3 dynamic speakers who will discuss the importance of physical, mental, and social health for the black woman. They will also provide practical and realistic ways that the woman can begin taking steps in the direction of total health and well being.
I believe that as a direct outcome of this program, women will begin the process of taking responsibility and ownership of their health &changing the narrative and expectations of the so called "Strong Black Women". I expect women to learn new ways to engage in behaviors conducive to their growth and expansion, becoming solution oriented, building necessary boundaries in order that they remain well. I expect women to know the WHO definition of Health and see themselves as worthy and deserving of a whole and healthy life. I also expect women to do what they have been doing for centuries, pass down this information to the relatives, neighbors, peers, etc so that the black community can begin and continue to thrive.
