Florida A&M health center hosted Salsa Night in Phase 3 to promote National Latino AIDS Awareness Day. This year’s theme is ‘To End Aids, Commit to Act.’
The event was also partnered with FAMU’s student organization UNIDOS, which means ‘unity’ in Spanish but also stands for uniting nations to inspire diverse opportunities in society.
“There’s a lot of Latinos here in America and some of us are sexually active so it’s important for us to be tested and have information of our health,” said Vanity Duran, a senior broadcast journalism student from Tampa and president of UNIDOS.
Having the participants Salsa at the event was a way for them to get active while becoming educated on HIV/Aids in the Latin community.
“I know how to Salsa because we do it back at home,” said Kulton Jackson, a senior chorale music student from St. Petersburg, Fla. “I kind of missed it, so I thought there would be some people in there I could do the dances with.”
Randy Henley, a health educator for Famu health center, said there were scheduling conflicts that did not allow HIV testing at the event, but the health center offers HIV oral tests.
“For regular testing on campus we have students health services which is a two week test, its an Orasure test, no blood involved, oral swab, send it off and your results come back in two weeks,” Henley said. “For some students who would prefer rapid testing, we do outsource them to places like Big Bend Cares or Leon County Health Department which does the 15-20 minute test, so they get there results while sitting there.”
Some attendees, like Omar El-Amin, a senior cardiopulmonary science student from Davie, Fla., said the health center shared a lot of important information about sexual diseases.
“They imparted types of contraceptives and barriers used during the act of intercourse,” El-Amin said. “It was a very informational event.