Community Education and Testing

Siempre Unidos has taken a leadership role in the education of the entire Honduran community about the high prevalence of HIV and how to avoid infection. We now have national recognition for these services. In addition, we provide one of the very few programs to offer voluntary confidential screening for HIV. This work would be impossible without the tireless efforts of Rev Pascual Torres, Executive Director of Siempre Unidos. He has recently written and been funded for five major grants to expand HIV screening and HIV education outreach into the community and to improve psychological support for those already infected with HIV:

• $84,000 for one year from Global Fund for outreach to youths 12-24 not in school
• $278,000 for 3 years from Episcopal Relief and Development to emphasize safe sex and offer HIV screening to commercial sex workers and their clients
• $100,000 over 3 years from Christian AIDS/MHE to open Canterbury Clubs at the two major public universities in Honduras to increase AIDS awareness and offer voluntary HIV testing for 4600 individuals
• $10,000 for 1 year from Jubilee Ministries to support a part-time psychologist for our clinics
• $15,000 for 1 year from the Church of the Netherlands to support our home visitation program to new or especially ill patients

These efforts enable Siempre Unidos to provide more employment opportunities to Hondurans living with AIDS while at the same time to aggressively prevent the spread of HIV.