To raise awareness about AIDS and HIV and to promote safe sex and testing for STDs and STIs, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc. is hosting AIDS Awareness Day on Dec. 1 from 12-2 p.m. in the Don Taft University Center Spine.
Monica Sapp, senior elementary education major and president of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc., explained how this event will raise awareness.
“Every month we, Zeta Phi Beta, do an awareness, so this month has AIDS Awareness Day, and we decided to have an event to promote safe sex and getting tested,” she said. “There will be testing, giving out condoms and playing games to see how much people know about AIDS and how important it is and how rapidly it’s spreading in the community.”
While AIDS Awareness Day is not new to NSU’s campus, this is only the third time that Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc. will host an event for it.
Sapp said that this event is important to have on a college campus and that she believes this event will have a great impact on NSU.
“I think it is really important because this is a college and people do have sex,” she said. “Sometimes people don’t use protection, and they don’t know the effects it can have if they don’t use protection. I really feel like this will have a big impact and we will really try to get the word out to get people there.”
According to Brianna Walker, senior communication studies major and vice president of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc., HIV and AIDS are very prominent in this area. She said that they can affect college students.
“I know as college students we think, ‘Oh, that can’t happen to me,’ but it really can,” she said. “Broward County is the number one county with AIDS and HIV.”
Walker said this event is important to her.
“AIDS and HIV plague black women,” she explained. “As a black woman, this is near and dear to me because this event can help save a lot of lives. It can have the potential to stop someone from making a wrong decision at a wrong time.”
Walker said that this event can positively affect the community.
“If we’re able to inform our community about it, we’ll at least cut the numbers down,” she said. “We’ll be able to better it or at least not add on to the number of people in Broward County who have HIV and AIDS.”
This event is free and attendance is open to all. For more information, contact Sapp at ms3003@nova.edu.
