By Thea Jarvis

The AIDS Education Project, an arm of St. Joseph's Hospital's Hispanic Services division, has received a 1990 Secretary's Community Health Promotion Award.

The award program is a function of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and recognized outstanding community health activity throughout the country.

The AIDS Education Project is one of only seven community health programs in Georgia to be nominated for the award. Nationally, a total of 173 Secretary's awards were presented. In Georgia, the award is given by the State Department of Human Resources.

Cecilia Galvis, who coordinates the project for St. Joseph's Hispanic Service, said the program began in 1989 with funding from the state's Department of Human Resources, People of Color Initiative. It offers extensive education and information on AIDS and its prevention to Hispanics in metro Atlanta and selected communities of north Georgia.

"Receiving this award is an honor, but our true satisfaction is in continuing our work of offering Hispanics this essential health education and information," Mrs. Galvis said.

In the first two years of operation, the project involved close to 10,000 individuals in large group presentations at churches, places of work and English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, and in one-on-one outreach in private homes, apartment complexes, street corners and shopping centers.

Some 15,000 brochures were distributed in medical waiting rooms, consulates, public health centers, travel agencies and grocery stores.

Spanish language videos -- "SIDA es AIDS" and "Ojos Que No Ven" ("Eyes That Fail To See") -- have been utilized in small family and neighborhood gatherings, where brochures and hotline numbers are given out for further information.

Mrs. Galvis, who moved to the U.S. from Colombia, South America, in 1980, observed that "the Hispanic population is increasing every day, the community is growing."

Gradually, the Hispanic population is breaking down traditional cultural barriers that impede frank discussion of sexuality and sexual disease, she has observed. Within the atmosphere of trust and confidence she tried to establish, Mrs. Galvis' audiences are often "very, very open."

"Nobody wants to talk in public about this," she admitted, but "once they are involved in the talk, they like to participate. They want to know more."

Mrs. Galvis is an educator who taught microbiology and bacteriology in South America. She has been assisted in the AIDS Education Project by part-time workers Carlos Berrios, Teresa Perez, Eduardo Salinas and Martin Hernandez, who is currently covering Gainesville.

Other outlying areas of north Georgia targeted by the project are Dalton, Athens, Cedartown and Carrollton, which have large concentrations of Hispanics workers.

The 1990 census listed a total of nearly 73,000 Hispanics within the boundaries of the archdiocese of Atlanta.

Last year, a Pediatric AIDS Demonstration Project, coordinated by Blanca Orsini, was added to the Hispanic Services AIDS Education Project at St. Joseph's. This program offers HIV/AIDS education to children and families at risk, facilitating access to social and medical services according to their needs.

Dr. William Roper, director of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, stated in a letter announcing the award that programs such as the AIDS Education Project "clearly define priority health problems, provide effective interventions, and evaluate their results. They are creative and have the potential of being replicated. To be among this group is an honor."

Sister Barbara Harrington, GNSH, director of Hispanic Services at St. Joseph's received the Secretary's award March 20 along with Mrs. Galvis. She commended Mrs. Galvis on her achievement.

"We're proud of her because it was one of the outstanding programs in our state," she said.