Infoline

1-866-APICHA 9
APICHA LAUNCHES HIV/AIDS INFO-LINE

APICHA serves Asian and Pacific Islanders (APIs) who are mostly immigrants and monolingual. To reach them, peer educators, who are fluent in various API languages, go to malls, street corners, laundromats, nail salons, saunas, clubs, health fairs, ethnic festivals, schools and churches. They give out literature on HIV/AIDS, condoms, and at times carry one-to-one interactions, which allow for a more extensive discussion of HIV/AIDS. While this strategy has served us well and continues to do so, APICHA is always on the look-out for other strategies to expand and deepen its reach in API communities. One such strategy is the Info Line.

Armed with a grant from the Office of Minority Health, APICHA launched the multi-lingual HIV/AIDS Info Line last November 2000 targeting the six largest API ethnic groups in New York and/or with the highest AIDS case rates in their own language. Phone lines are answered by trained and competent peer counselors in Bengali, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tagalog, and Urdu. APIs can call the toll free Info Line number -1-866-APICHA 9- to get information on HIV risk reduction, receive referrals for on-site testing, and other HIV-related services.

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