January 14, 2008

Latino Group to Keep HIV/AIDS Program Running

After announcing a week earlier that it would no longer be running a program for HIV positive people in Arizona’s Maricopa County, the nonprofit Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC) has said it will continue to offer its Ryan White CARE program through February 2009, reports The Arizona Republic (azcentral.com, 1/12).

The organization had said that it was losing too much money on the program and that the federal funding it received was not enough to sustain HIV programming past February 2008.

The decision to keep the program going came after Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox and state Rep. Robert Meza, D-Phoenix, promised to raise about $43,000 from private donors.

CPLC is one of few organizations that specialize in helping Latinos manage the disease. More than 12,000 people in Arizona are HIV positive, and according to the Arizona Department of Health Services, Latinos account for about 23 percent of those cases.
 
"It would be really remiss not to have a culturally diverse program like CPLC doing this," Wilcox said. "The program is so fundamentally important to our community and the culturally diverse program they offer is necessary."

Scroll down to comment on this story.

Previous Comments:

Alex Ortiz, Kissimmee, FL, 2008-01-16 11:32:28
It is outrageous how the government is cutting on all the HIV/AIDS programs it like they dont care if all those patients die. I congratulate CPLC for their effort in maintain and protect people with this disease.

zzrider, lonesome dove, 2008-01-15 12:13:34
Why do they label these clinics. Why do they always give them race based start. I do not understand "race" it seems like such an old idea. Why not just the ryan white human center or people center or health center. One people, human race. Are hearts are reflected by our actions.

hc, San Francisco, CA, 2008-01-15 09:48:37
Great story. Interesting and even made me want to contact the agency directly and offer some financial support.