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1st Annual Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day May 19, 2005, Empress Pavilion, Chinatown, Los Angeles

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

To mark the occasion, the Los Angeles-based Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team (APAIT) hosted a luncheon honoring three organizations for their work to improve HIV/AIDS awareness in L.A.’ s Asian and Pacific Islander communities and to launch the agency’s U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) Capacity Building and Technical Assistance (CBA) program’s The Banyan Tree Project. The event was held at the Empress Pavilion at the historic Chinatown and was attended by over 200 community members and leaders. Simultaneous events were also held in Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago, San Francisco, and Honolulu.

Honorees included Asian Pacific Islander Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (API PFLAG) for their outstanding community service, The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center for their community partnership, and Adelphia Cable for their commitment in reducing stigma and ensuring partnership in the project. These organizations are dedicated to providing culturally-sensitive outreach and education to our communities. Through their leadership, partnership, and community service, we are working to reduce the incidence of HIV and AIDS and we are fighting against discrimination and stigma.

API PFLAG is a project of its national parent organization, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). Founded in 2001, the API PFLAG support group provides a safe space for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning people to share their feelings and experiences in a culturally-sensitive context.
The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center provides a broad array of services for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, delivering legal, social, cultural, and educational services through nearly a quarter-million client visits from ethnically diverse youth and adults each year. Through its Jeffrey Goodman Special Care Clinic, the Center offers free and low-cost health, mental health, HIV/AIDS medical care and HIV testing and prevention.

As a media partner, cable television company Adelphia is supporting National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day and the Banyan Tree Project by airing the public service announcements developed by the National Capacity Building Network of this project.

In addition to awards, event highlights included community speakers including Robert Dunlon, Pradeepta Upadhyay of South Asian Network, as well as Hazel Young who spoke about her experience as a mother of two boys, one of which died of HIV.
The event was successfully attended by over 200 community members all over Los Angeles, Orange, and even San Diego Counties and is looking to expand in the next 4 years of the project. For more information about this project, please visit the website at: www.apaitonline.org or call the Community Development and Research Department of APAIT at 213.553.1847

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