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My name is Gloria Rodríguez and I am 16 years old. I was born in Toluca, México and moved to the U.S in 1993. I have lived here in Colorado for most of my life with both my older brother and sister, and my mother. I’m currently attending Skyland Community High School, where students learn by obtaining internships in their fields of interest.
My internship is at the Colorado AIDS Project (CAP). I work as a part of the Prevention Center where I help with various programs like the Youth Testing Clinic, co-presenting prevention presentations, and basically coming up with ideas that can get youth to get tested.
At CAP, our mission is to better the lives of those living with HIV/AIDS. We provide housing, counselors for substance abuse, a Food Bank, testing clinics and other programs to serve our clients. For my internship, I work mainly with adolescents because they are the most targeted group along with Latinos and African Americans. CAP works with other organizations and have youth testing sites where teens can get tested confidentially and for free.
We also give prevention presentations to schools, shelters and other places where this information is needed. At these presentations, we talk about the stages of AIDS/HIV, prevention, the transmittable body fluids in which you can get infected and how it comes to overwhelm the body when infection occurs.
I believe most teens do not get tested or engage in safer sex is mainly because they are afraid. When coming up with ideas, I try to put myself in the position many teens put themselves in when testing and safer sex comes up. I ask myself, “Well I wouldn’t want to get tested because if my mom ever found out she would kill me, and if I ask my boyfriend to be safe about sex, he might not agree and think I don’t know what I’m talking about.” These, I believe are the greater issues to be dealt with.
Since the majority of adolescents are indeed sexually active, the only other solution, other than abstinence, is to teach them to be safe about it, even when peer pressure is involved. Testing is a bit tougher to promote. In my opinion, I certainty would not like it if anyone, especially my parent, found out I was sexually active or putting myself at risk of becoming infected and if it required any amount of money. For this main reason, I’ve tried to make it a priority that testing be confidential and free. I believe that as long as a teen is sure that it will be, then there really is no reason that they should not be responsible and get tested.
My personal message to my peers would be that they go out there and get tested and to try to find out as much as possible about AIDS/HIV. There is nothing wrong with protecting yourselves and making sure you all are healthy human beings. If you think you are putting yourselves at risk, then make sure to get yourselves into a position where you will be safe. There are so many ways out there to do this. The only thing you have to do is ask someone. Everybody needs a little help once in a while and with this disease, you need all the help you can get. This fatal disease is nothing to joke about because no matter who you are or where you come from, if you get involved in risky behavior, you can be infected.
Marking 21 years of service and commitment, Colorado AIDS Project is the oldest and largest nonprofit, community based AIDS service and education organization in Colorado. Its mission is to serve its 1,800 clients with services such as bilingual case management, mental health and substance abuse counseling, a food bank, housing and transportation assistance, and emergency financial assistance. CAP also reaches thousands more through its bilingual HIV prevention and education programs, as well as the free and confidential HIV testing offered twice a month at its youth and adult testing clinics. For more information, visit coloradoAIDSproject.org or call 303-837-0166.
Gloria Rodríguez is a Colorado AIDS Project Prevention Intern.
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