As students walked through Maxson Plaza near Brotman Hall yesterday, community residents encouraged them to take a small, opaque goodie bag containing condoms, lubricant and information on HIV.
In honor of national AIDS Awareness Day, Project Choice – a Cal State Long Beach non-profit organization – hosted an informational event promoting AIDS awareness yesterday, which included free HIV testing.
An abundance of colorful condoms, penis models and energetic organizers attracted students to the event.
“It might be intimidating, but other than that it’s a great thing to have on campus,” Amanda Tellez, a sophomore health science major, said. “Plus, it also shows me how little I know about the subject.”
Project Choice’s theme this year was “Getting to Zero,” a theme that aims for zero discrimination, zero new-HIV infections and zero AIDS-related deaths.
Angela Campos, volunteer at the event and community organizer from the Asian American Drug Abuse Program, said the group handed out 600 condoms two years ago, 700 condoms last year and hoped to hand out 1,000 condoms this year.
Michael Buittron, a clinical outreach specialist for St. Mary Medical Center, helped share HIV awareness by passing out information on preventative tools.
“Here, in Long Beach, there are 6,000 people estimated with HIV. 1,500 of them don’t know [they have] it,” Buittron said. “Most of the 1,500 people who are walking around and don’t know it are younger because they tend to test less frequently.”
Gwen Policarpio, a junior health science major, said she appreciated the organizations’ reaching out.
“This event is great because they come to the students rather than the students having to go to them,” Policarpio said.
