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Free AIDS testing available on World AIDS Day

Nashville Cares, a community-based AIDS service organization, will offer free HIV testing from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 3 in RUC Room 370. Testing is confidential and results can be given in an hour.The Women’s Center will be cosponsoring informational displays and red ribbon sales from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Dec. 1 and 3 on the first floor of the RUC. Proceeds from the ribbon sales will go to Nashville Cares.

“It is important for us to be aware,” Amaris Avant, Lambda president, said. “We see HIV and AIDS as an international problem, in Africa especially, and we don’t think it can affect us, but there are hundreds of cases in middle Tennessee alone.”

Stigmas surrounding HIV/AIDS often prevent people from getting tested for the deadly disease. Lambda, in cooperation with the Women’s Center, will be working to inform the Tech community and raise awareness in observance of World Aids Day.

“We felt it was important to help raise awareness about HIV and AIDS because it is a disease that seems to prey on the uninformed,” Diana Lalani of the Women’s Center, said. “And of course, that’s part of our mission. To educate, empower and inform.”

For brochures about AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, visit the Women’s Center in Pennebaker Hall Room 203. More information about World AIDS Day is available at http://www.worldaidsday.org.