Women Living With HIV and AIDS in New York City: A Mapping Project and Literature Review was developed by the Women’s HIV Collaborative of New York with assistance from individuals working on the front lines of the epidemic providing women-specific HIV/AIDS services and programs throughout New York City.
The following is what people are saying about Women Living With HIV and AIDS in NYC: A Maping Project and Literature Review. The actual report is available online and could be downladed in its entirety here.
“The Women’s HIV Collaborative has created a groundbreaking model for HIV affected cities around the United States. With a keen sense of the gender dynamics and cultural nuances, the seminal report, “Women Living With HIV and AIDS in New York City” reveals and explores key issues that are uniquely critical to preventing HIV in women and girls, as well as delivering appropriate treatment and care. This gender lens on HIV in settings of women of color should be a key advocacy tool for improving policy and service delivery for women and girls all over the country.” – Dazon Dixon Diallo, Founder & President of SisterLove
“The information that is given in this mapping project provides us with another resource to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic that is devastating our communities. Spreading knowledge on the risks of HIV/AIDS and teaching individuals the importance of practicing safe sex is one of our leading defenses against this illness. This new study allows us to pinpoint the areas with the highest rates of HIV/AIDS cases. Based on this information we have a greater understanding of the communities who are most at risk and now we can focus our attention on limiting new cases through education and outreach.” – Council Member, Darlene Mealy, Council District 41.
“I applaud the Women’s HIV Collaborative of New York for conducting such thorough research to provide a clear picture of the unique challenges in fighting new HIV infections among women in New York City. Their report clearly highlights that the vast majority of all HIV infections among women occurs in neighborhoods with highly concentrated poverty. It is time for policymakers to understand that large investments to address poverty and its social consequences must be made in these neighborhoods in order to achieve any significant decrease in infection rates among women in New York City. In fact, I believe the key to success in improving most socioeconomic conditions lies in this approach of targeting neighborhoods for recovery.” – Council Member, Al Vann, Council District 36
“This report clearly shows that our fight against HIV/AIDS is nowhere near the end. What is even more disturbing is the majority of the women contracting the disease are Hispanic and Black. We need to redouble our efforts to educate our communities and fight the continued presence of HIV/AIDS. I want to thank the Women’s HIV Collaborative of New York for their comprehensive report, which my colleagues in the Council and I will now have as a tool as we look at what more we can be doing on a city level.” – Speaker Christine C. Quinn, New York City Council, Council District 3.
“This comprehensive report reminds us that HIV does not happen in a vacuum. If we are going to decrease the number of women and girls becoming infected with HIV, we must do more and do it earlier. We need to address health care disparities, partner violence, substance abuse, poverty, racism, gender inequality, and education. Prevention should be the emphasis.” – Dr. Monica Sweeney, MD, MPH, Assistant Commissioner, Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
“This report presents a unique blend of human rights and data-based analysis of why non-white women have become the face of HIV and AIDS in New York City, as they have throughout the United States. The authors provide specific evidence- neighborhood by neighborhood- that where government fails to provide prevention education, health care, housing and other services, people get sick. A geographical analysis of missing services also provides a roadmap to policy makers and to the community of how the problems can be fixed. This is an extremely valuable resource for women living with HIV and their allies.” – Megan McLemore and Rebecca Schleifer, Human Rights Watch
“This excellent report cleverly uses GIS and peer reviewed research to provide a comprehensive and illuminating picture of women living with HIV in New York City. More importantly, it provides overwhelming evidence of the importance of social and structural factors that drive racial disparities in HIV morbidity and mortality which must be directly addressed if we are to solve this persistent problem.” – Dr. Crystal Fuller, PhD, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and New York Academy of Medicine.
For more information, please visit Women’s HIV Collaborative of New York online here.
