Usually, Christo’s hair salon on 5th avenue in NYC keeps its clients’ business discreet. But this week, every star in the building was singing high praises for AIDS awareness for women.
The salon put together what they called a Special Day of Beauty. Hip-Hop’s former music video “it” girl, Melyssa Ford, actress Nia Long, and G-Unit’s princess, Olivia were all at the event. All three women were there to raise money and awareness, in conjunction with Alliance for Women’s Equality (A.W.E), for the country’s HIV/AIDS crises.
Egypt from NYC’s Power 105.1 was also at the event. “I have a girlfriend who was with her boyfriend for eight years,” she states. “They were black love, I loved them together, but she was just diagnosed with HIV a couple months ago.” She replied, “I just think it’s important for us to start putting our bodies and our health first, before that man.”
Ford, who is well-known for her leading roles in many Hip Hop videos as the sexy vixen is convinced that the majority of HIV/AIDS cases in the African-American and Latino community are a result of the lack of education.
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“A significant amount of these uninformed women are falling victim to contracting the HIV virus and AIDS, It’s just an unfortunate set of circumstances that really doesn’t have to happen. It’s really just about spreading the knowledge,” says Ford.
“What we do is strengthen women’s grassroots organizations and really believe that one of the keys to advancing progress for women is to have strong women institutions, all too often these institutions are just so fragile, they’re weak, they’re ill-funded. We’re going to donate our corporate skills to help grassroots women organizations strengthen their boards, raise funds, get strong institutions, so they can take on the government and advocate for legislative change, so they can actually provide services to the community,” says, Jennifer Klot, A.W.E.’s chairwoman and senior advisor at Social Science Research Council.
For more information on AIDS awareness and Alliance for Womens Equality please visit: www.womensequality.org
Source: AOL Black Voices
