By Students from the Cal State Long Beach Center for Latino Community Health held an informational event Tuesday on upper campus to educate the community about safe sex and provide free HIV testing.
Hosts for the event included the Center for Latino Community Health at CSULB, Salud a la Vida! and Bienestar Human Services.
“The whole plan is to spread awareness of HIV and AIDS,” said Luis Angel Cendejas, a graduate student in public health and one of the founders for the community health project.
The HIV testing event is open to all students and provides a quick blood test with accurate results. Should the test be HIV positive, Bienestar also provides a continued examination at their location on Cherry Avenue and 15th Street.
Student turnout for the event was adequate for those working, with around 20 people accepting examinations for HIV. Event workers Javier Mondar and Hector Montes engaged passing students in casual conversation and introduced the group’s mission while offering snacks and – as their mission promotes – condoms.
“[There were] lots of nice people, everyone was open,” said Mondar.
CLCH representatives and the Bienestar HIV testing van were found between Peterson Hall 1 and the Fine Arts 4 buildings. They provided condoms, HIV testing by licensed physicians from Bienestar Human Services and invitations to workshop events for continued education on safe, responsible sex and substance use.
Cendejas and CLCH started this event in 2015 with the mission of informing the campus community about safe sex to reduce the number of HIV infections in the Los Angeles county. Latinos between the ages of 18 and 24 years old are the most affected, according to research by Bienestar Human Services.
Funding for the event came from Salud a la Vida!, which is government funded by SAMHSA – the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. This allowed the three groups to cooperate and push sexual education beyond the classroom.
Cendejas succinctly described his mission as “students helping students”. The project staff are young, with members aging around their mid-twenties and attending CSULB.
Latinos aren’t the only group that CLCH intends to help. Cendejas wishes to help any and all who have questions or would like testing regarding their sexual health.
CLCH holds workshops for students interested in learning more about HIV; while they do have a focus on latinos for a cultural similarity, CLCH is open to helping people from all walks of life.
Cendejas noted the barrier that one’s culture may have regarding sex. Cultural traditions, especially those in Latino or Hispanic families are more conservative when it comes to talking about sex and contraceptives so discussion on those topics is not common.
“We want to take the taboo away because sex is something that isn’t really talked about,” Cendejas said.
CLCH is also responsible for providing the the ample amount of condoms seen in restrooms at the University Student Union and the Student Recreation and Wellness Center. It was Cendejas that made the call to make condoms more accessible to students by providing them on a larger scale.
Condoms were already provided by Student Health Services but Cendejas felt that it was not enough. He held focus groups with students when he found that they did not want to walk to the health center or be seen entering the building for fear of being judged by others.
Through the focus groups, Cendejas realized that a solution may lie in a larger provision of condoms in multiple spots around campus. Cendejas later spoke with former ASI Vice President Miriam Hernandez and local condom company, LA Condoms, to start the program to encourage students to “Use Condom Sense,” as the project’s slogan promotes.
Since the project’s start, Cendejas had soon created a new demand for condoms on campus as dispensaries quickly run empty throughout the week.
“They go like hotcakes,” Cendejas said. “We fill them like 30 times a week.”
Condoms are available throughout the semester for students and HIV testing is scheduled at select dates. Students who still want to get tested can visit CLCH in Social Sciences/Public Administration 24 to contact Bienestar for an appointment, which is also free.
