The Toronto-based non-profit organization helps empower Latinos and Latinas living with HIV/AIDS surpass the impact of diagnosis and establish a supportive and accepting community
Many people living with HIV/AIDS across the country regularly experience stigma and discrimination due to their status, but statistics indicate that people living with HIV/AIDS from minority groups are confronted with the most stigma and discrimination. It’s one of the reasons why Latinos Positivos was founded back in 2007 after the AIDS International Conference in 2006, to address the need for culturally appropriate services for Latinx newcomers to Toronto and surrounding areas. The Toronto-based non-profit organization provides practical and much-needed services for the community, alongside educational activities, social events, retreats and more.
“Today, we provide services to more than 300 Hispanic community members from across the GTA,” Ower Alexander Oberto, an Immigration, Income & Community Liaison with Latinos Positivos, recently told IN Magazine.
Being recognized as an ethnic community with a strengthened voice within the larger HIV/AIDS community in Toronto and the rest of Ontario is something that’s vital to Latinos Positivos, according to Oberto, who spoke to IN about their work and the barriers and discrimination often faced by Latinos living with HIV/AIDS.
Language and cultural barriers can make it difficult for people to have effective access to various healthcare, social and immigration services across Canada. Understanding the needs of Hispanic people living with HIV/AIDS, Latinos Positivos works as an organization to address and work on these issues. It creates and offers solutions to HIV-positive Latinos and Latinas so they can get backing and support from both government and non-government organizations.
“The barriers our community often faces include immigration status, language barriers, cultural stigmatization, limited access to culturally appropriate healthcare services and lack of social support networks,” says Oberto.
Oberto maintains that despite these barriers, the Latino community remains resilient with the help of organizations like Latinos Positivos, which are working to improve health outcomes, offer strong community support systems, advocate for culturally sensitive health care and encourage active participation in support groups. According to Oberto, strengthening these behaviours involves providing continuous support, creating awareness and ensuring access to necessary resources.
“We provide peer counselling support, peer interpretation, accompaniment to doctor’s appointments, informative workshops, and social events where community members can gather,” says Oberto.
Providing social support and interpretation isn’t the only way the organization is working to make a difference to community members. Thanks to psychologist volunteers from the IBERO University in Mexico, Latinos Positivos is able to provide emotional accompaniment to its members. It also offers peer counselling from Latinx people who are living with HIV and have similar lived experiences, and offers symposiums and workshops to provide education to community members.
The organization, which receives support from organizations like ViiV Healthcare Canada, also offers more practical office support, such as printing, photocopies and other office supplies as additional ways to address the pressing needs of the Latino community affected by HIV.
“We can address these and other needs by ensuring access to culturally appropriate healthcare services regardless of the immigration status of our community members, and by supporting community-based organizations like Latinos Positivos, and promoting policies that address the specific challenges faced by the Latino community,” says Oberto. “Ensuring sustainability involves ongoing funding, community engagement, and regular evaluation of programs to meet evolving needs.”
To learn more about Latinos Positivos and resources available, visit latinospositivos.ca. To learn more about ViiV Healthcare Canada, visit www.viivhealthcare.ca.
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