"As the collective work of a special Committee on on Women and AIDS, formed in the fall of 1987, progressed, the campaign theme coalesced: women are vulnerable to AIDS and AIDS is preventable. The Committee, originally organized as a arm of the New Haven Mayor's Task Force on AIDS, evolved into the Women's AIDS Coalition. Members include 20 black, Hispanic and white women representing daycare centers, battered women's shelters, family planning and inner-city health clinics, university women's programs, prisons, the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights, Planned Parenthood, AIDS Project New Haven and the New Haven Health department.The prevailing emphasis in AIDS education on 'risk groups' rather than 'risk behaviors' has created the illusion that women are not truly vulnerable to the disease. In fact, quite the opposite is true: the infection rate among women is increasing 3 times faster than it is among any other group.While women constitute only 7% of the total cases nationally, 25% of all people with AIDS in New Haven are women. Further, 36% of all reported female adult AIDS cases in the state of Connecticut involve New Haven residents.If women continue to believe they are not at risk, and if they lack adequate information about safer sex, the incidence of AIDS among them will surely continue to rise; so will the number of infected children who are born to these women. Education is the means to stem this epidemic.The Women's AIDS Coalition is the first group to an educational program for the city which addresses the specific needs and issues of women.The initial plan for AIDS education, as conceived by the Coalition, has two phases: 1) to develop and activate a city-wide media campaign (messages conveyed in English and Spanish through posters, brochures, billboards, radio, television and newspaper spots) to educate all women about AIDS, and 2) to create a program staffed by AIDS trainers who will work with women's organizations and groups to teach women about AIDS. The Coalition carefully considers differences in cultural, language and literacy levels as well as in class, age and gender in all its work.Contact the Women's AIDS Coalition for information on any of the fourteen different two-color (black and red, 18'' x 23'') posters already available"
