Sisters Informing Sisters

Recent graduates of WNCAP’s “SISTA” awareness program gather for a graduation dinner. Pictured from front to back, left, Jennifer Poore, Outreach Liaison, Brittney Hadden, Jetta Redmon, and Shantaq Gaston. On the right from front to back, Paquita Jennings, Tema Jamison, and Aminah Harden, Coordinator of the “SISTA” program.  Photo: Urban News

Staff reports

The SISTA project (Sisters Informing Sisters on Topics about HIV/AIDS), was developed by African American women for African American women. This initiative is promoted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as one of the best available evidence-based behavioral interventions for the awareness and prevention in the spread of HIV/AIDS.

This group-level, gender- and culturally- relevant intervention is designed to increase condom use by African American women. Five peer-led group sessions are conducted that focus on ethnic and gender pride, HIV knowledge, and skills training around sexual risk reduction behaviors and decision making. The intervention is based on a social learning theory, as well as the theory of Gender and Power.

Aminah Harden, SISTA Coordinator states that, “SISTA is Western NC AIDS
Project’s premier program for African American women in this region. It
is to educate women about prevention and how to protect themselves from
contracting the HIV virus. The group sessions are intimate, informal,
and informative. We have real-life role plays, DVDs for discussion, and
homework as a practice session. We encourage our graduates to tell their
friends about our prevention program so they, too, can be informed.”

Harden goes on to state that African American women contract the HIV
virus at a higher rate than any other ethnic group. “Our SISTA mantra
states “It’s All About SISTA,” and that is what we teach women,” Harden
concluded. Approximately 300 women in Western North Carolina have
completed the program since it was introduced here in 2005.

For more information on HIV/AIDS awareness and the SISTA program,
contact Aminah Harden, SISTA Program Coordinator at: (828) 252-7489, or
(Toll free) at 1-800-346-3731. Call to learn how your church,
organization, or community can become an active participant in WNCAP’s
community outreach campaigns. You may visit WNCAP online at
www.wncap.org