Sisters Informing Sisters About AIDS

Aminah Harden, MPH – WNCAP Photo: Urban News

Aminah Harden, MPH – WNCAP

Staff reports

WNCAP – the Western North Carolina AIDS Project – has long operated from the premise that education and awareness are the most effective prevention against the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Now in its second decade, the organization offers innovative programs that are made available free of charge to individuals and communities throughout WNC. One of the most important means of disseminating the program information is by using facilitators who are trained in various fields ranging from private medicine to public health to community development, education, and outreach.

WNCAP outreach facilitator Aminah Harden is profiled below.

Aminah Harden grew up in Savannah, GA and later lived in Atlanta for
more than twenty years. Her family now lives in Atlanta, while she is a
resident of Polk County, NC.

In Atlanta, Aminah provided technical assistance for health
support groups on women’s health issues. She also worked for The
National Black Women’s Health Project (NBWHP), based in Atlanta, and
facilitated small groups of women at their annual health retreat: Black
and Female: I Know the Reality©. Later, she moved to the Morehouse
School of Medicine Community Health Department in its collaboration
with NBWHP on a project to inform, support, and help high-risk and
low-income women facing breast and/or cervical cancer. “Through this
work,” says Harden, “I became interested in women’s health issues and
the high incidence of death for African Americans in just about every
disease that is a public health concern.”

In 1993, having received her Masters in Public Health from
Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, Aminah accepted a
position with Teachers for Africa Program in the West African nation of
Gambia. She taught one year at Gambia College School of Public Health,
and the following year in Nigeria. She has facilitated HIV/AIDS
prevention education to women and men considered to be at high-risk,
both nationally and internationally.

Aminah has been on staff with the Western North Carolina AIDS
Project (WNCAP) since June 2008, as SISTA Coordinator (Sisters
Informing Sisters on Topics about AIDS). This program is designed for
African American women, and teaches about HIV/AIDS, Ethnic and Gender
Pride, Assertiveness Skills, Behavioral Self Management, Coping Skills,
and more.

In March, national facilitators trained six new SISTA staff to
help with community outreach and educating more women about HIV/AIDS.
The six new facilitators are Shari L. Smith, Felicia Ellis, Allison
Smith, Catherine Foster, Letitia Bromell-Ross, Gaylen Erlichmann and
Keisha Hightower. Harden and two other facilitators, Lillian Butler and
Jennifer Poore, received update training.

WNCAP is located at 554 Fairview Rd. in Asheville. For more
information on AIDS-HIV awareness, contact WNCAP by mail at PO Box
2411, Asheville, NC 28802, by phone at (828) 252-7489, or by email at www.wncap.org .