Life
We Are Empowered: Alicia Keys wants to change the way women think about HIV
(Black PR Wire) – Menlo Park, CA, March 7, 2013 – Fourteen-time Grammy Award-winning artist and HIV advocate Alicia Keys has teamed up with Greater Than AIDS to launch EMPOWERED, a new public information campaign to reach women in the U.S. about HIV/AIDS. Being released in the lead-up to National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (March 10), the ongoing EMPOWERED campaign includes targeted public service ads (PSAs) and community engagement opportunities.
Approximately 280,000 people are living with HIV in the U.S. – or about one in four – are women. Women of color have been especially hard-hit, accounting for the large majority of new infections occurring among women in the U.S.
As a force in the global fight against AIDS, Keys has dedicated her work in philanthropy to help bring awareness to the urgency of HIV/AIDS. Now with the launch of EMPOWERED, she is once again highlighting the power of women – as mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, partners and people living with HIV – to change the course of this disease through every day actions.
“When I became aware that women accounted for one in five new HIV infections occurring in the U.S. each year, it shook me to the core and I realized this is an issue we ALL need to pay attention to,” said Alicia Keys. “Whether HIV positive or negative, we all have the opportunity to educate ourselves and make a difference.”
Most HIV infections among American women are a result of heterosexual transmission, and to a lesser extent sharing needles. There has been some recent encouraging news when it comes to women and HIV. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) there was a significant 21 percent decrease in new HIV infections among women in the U.S. between 2008 and 2010. For progress to continue, experts caution efforts must be sustained. More information about women and HIV/AIDS is available from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Alicia Keys on this new Greater Than AIDS campaign to reach women about HIV,” said Drew Altman, president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation. “As the backbone of so many families in this country, as well as a population affected by the disease, women are central to the fight against HIV.”
The campaign promotes specific ways women are empowered in the face of HIV/AIDS:
