Agency Offers Help to People With AIDS

The Southern California Bilingual HIV/AIDS Hotline in East Los Angeles commemorated World AIDS Day on Wednesday night, vowing to spread the word to the Eastside that there is a neighborhood center comforting people with AIDS.

“So many people suffering with AIDS in East Los Angeles seek consolation on the Westside,” said Olivia Valdepena, executive director of Avance Human Services, the East Los Angeles organization that provides a bilingual AIDS hotline, as well as a rape and domestic violence hotline.

Valdepena says there are two reasons Eastside residents with AIDS defer to the Westside. One is that the state-funded Avance Humans Services is not yet a household word.

The other reason is far more perplexing to the workers at Avance. AIDS, most often contracted through homosexual activity, remains a taboo to many Mexican American households, according to Valdepena.

“Many people are just ashamed to admit they got AIDS though homosexual activity,” she said.

As of the end of October, the Eastside hotline had received 918 calls this year. In comparison, the AIDS Project L.A. Hotline in Hollywood had received more than 40,000 calls, officials said.

Avance has been working with other AIDS prevention and education agencies to encourage HIV testing. “One of our goals is to make sure people know their HIV status,” said Valdepena. “Many undocumented immigrants don’t get tested simply because they figure even if they have the disease, they have no medical benefits to do anything about it,”

Education is another goal. Valdepena cites the case of one HIV-positive man who was sleeping in his car because he thought he could infect his wife and children by being close to them. His wife called the bilingual AIDS hotline after he had spent two weeks sleeping in the car.