N.M. Health Department’s Funding Cuts To AIDS Programs Provide ‘Opportunity’ for Other Funders, Editorial Says
The New Mexico Department of Health's funding cuts to HIV/AIDS educational programs -- including a $50,000 cut to the state's Speakers Bureau Program -- should be viewed as an "opportunity" for private groups and other public funding sources to "step in" and broaden the programs, a Santa Fe New Mexican editorial says. The health department had to make "tough choices" when it decided to make the cuts in programs "aimed more at the general population" and focus more on programs aimed at "individual interventions and counseling" for HIV-positive people, the editorial says. However, "speakers keep HIV in the public's mind and consciousness" and "pu[t] a human face on HIV/AIDS," the editorial says. Therefore, private groups -- including churches, student councils, PTAs and AIDS advocacy groups -- and other public funding sources, including the state Public Education Department, can all "pitch in" to "broaden" HIV/AIDS educational outreach, the editorial says. "What must not happen is the silencing of the voices that tell us all what living with HIV/AIDS is like, each and every day," the editorial concludes (Santa Fe New Mexican, 9/28).
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