Promoting a healthy sexual lifestyle is the main objective of NGO IMPULSE, a group of volunteers who – in collaboration with AIDS Health Foundation (AHF) – began its work last week, during the Gay Parade of São Paulo.
The team of volunteers visited two parties during the Week and carried out interventions on Avenida Paulista.
The volunteers sought to talk directly with the gay population bringing important reflections on the topic in a light, fun way and inserted in the public context.
In the coming months, a series of targeted actions will take place, continuing this awareness-raising work, keeping the gay population more informed and aware of the importance of preventing and combating AIDS.
This is an important prevention initiative, since São Paulo is one of the main destinations for homosexual tourists from all over Brazil and the world. The project began in 2009, when José Ramos and a group of friends decided to do something to combat the alarming increase in the number of
HIV-infected gay men.
And so, with the support of AHF, they began working to create campaigns, events and online content in order to help the new generation of gay men have healthier behavior.
IMPULSE is currently present in several cities across the world. United States, including: Los Angeles, South Florida, Atlanta, New York, San Diego, Dallas, Washington DC, Orlando, and San Francisco.
Internationally, it is in Mexico City and Guadalajara, Mexico; Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Bangkok, Thailand; New Delhi, India; Beijing, China and now also in the largest Portuguese-speaking city in the world, São Paulo.
AIDS: GAYS ARE AGAIN THE CENTER OF ATTENTION
More than 30 years after the emergence of the AIDS epidemic, gays are once again the most vulnerable. Up to 15% of homosexuals have HIV, compared to 0,6% of the entire population. According to the United Nations AIDS Program (UNAIDS) in Brazil, having more sexual partners compared to other men means that homosexual and bisexual men have more opportunities to have sexual relations with someone who can transmit HIV. Likewise, among homosexual men, those who have more partners are more likely to acquire HIV.
And pay attention to a worrying fact: in 2015, of all those newly infected with the HIV virus, 43% were homosexual men, according to the Epidemiological Bulletin of the Ministry of Health. The increase in new cases among young people aged 15 to 24 is 50% in recent years, due to sexual behavior. Having sex responsibly and using a condom continue to be powerful weapons in the fight against the transmission of the HIV virus.
