March 10, National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, PWN-USA members were busy educating, informing and promoting awareness about HIV in their communities throughout the U.S. Members organized and presented at in-person events, participated in Twitter chats, webinars, interviews, wrote press releases and did live broadcasts to social media. Take a look at some of our members in action in honor and recognition of National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day!!

PWN-USA Texas, Greater Houston Area hosted its second annual event held at Cesar Chavez High School on Friday, March 9. Tana Pradia, Marnina Miller and Mona jessi Cartwright-Biggs, proud members of Positive Women’s Network (PWN) collaborated with AAMA to host the event. PWN created questions for discussion regarding sex education for the entire senior class of Cesar Chavez. The seniors broke off into small groups of boys and girls. The groups were facilitated by the members of PWN and members of AAMA. The questions created lively discussion amongst the teens, which were separated by gender making both genders feel safe and unrestricted to ask question and have a healthy conversation. Read more about it here.


PWN-USA Colorado took the day to wear their “If I were HIV+, I’d Still Be Me” t-shirts and took to social media to record a brief message in commemoration of National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day as well as produced this fact sheet. Check out the video of Barb Cardell’s very powerful message to bring awareness and togetherness to women across Colorado. On Friday March 9, a luncheon was hosted by Southern Colorado AIDS Project in Colorado Springs. Kari Perry spoke about living and thriving with HIV, including demands for women and girls to be part of prevention conversations and a call out to meaningfully involve impacted groups in decision-making tables, especially trans women, women of color, women living in rural communities and young women.






Takia Miller, PWN-USA member, was the featured speaker at this HIV/AIDS Awareness Event hosted on March 15 sponsored by Guilford County Department of Public Health, Pulse 72, Student Health Advisory Council and PrEP Ambassadors & HBHS Peer Facilitators.











Lepena Reid, Health Educator/Outreach and PWN-USA member of Tampa Florida, hosted a viewing event of Nothing Without Us.







Kamaria Laffrey wrote this very inspirational piece as a re-dedication to her pledge ten years ago when she spoke for the first time as a woman living with HIV in front of 200 people at the Florida Department of Health’s launch of the Sistas Organizing to Survive campaign.
 








Tiommi Luckett, PWN-USA Communications Assistant, presented on The Well Project’s webinar, Building Hope and Leadership Among Women Living with HIV with Maria Mejia, Global Ambassador, and Krista Martel, Executive Director on March 9.
 




Dierdre Johnson was the featured speaker at the Walk for HIV Awareness held on March 9 and featured in HIV Plus magazine in a compilation titled, Girl Power Can End HIV.











Janice Shirley was asked to speak at the Women and Girls HIV Health Day at the Betty Rae Center in Charlotte, NC for Power House where she Informed them “It’s ok to fear the unknown. It’s ok to fear the what if’s”. She states, “Hate of people comes from what has been done to them or what is being done to them.”









Chunnika Hodges, PWN-USA Inaugural Policy Fellow, of Detroit Michigan presented presented on Advancing Availability and Accessibility of PrEP for the women of Detroit at The Best Defense is a Good Offense, “Discovering Your IMAGO” on March 9. It was her first time presenting on a local level!








At the national level, PWN-USA was busy as well! We co-hosted a Twitter Chat with the Urban Coalition of HIV/AIDS Prevention Services on March 8. Check out the conversation on Storify.  










The same day, PWN-USA debuted the third installment of PWNCares entitled, “Disclosure–It’s Complicated” where four women living with HIV–Barb Cardell, Stacy Jennings, Shyronn Jones and Venita Ray–shared their stories of disclosure to family, friends, co-workers and potential dates. The four women featured in the video led a web-based “coffee table conversation” where they were able to speak directly to participants online. You can find the video, the recorded webinar and a discussion guide to use the video in meetings, events or support groups on our website here.