A Picture of Apicha
by Eren Kim, Staff Writer

There are not too many Asian Pacific Americans willing to handle HIV-related issues, but the Asian & Pacific Coalition on HIV/AIDS (APICHA for short) is an exception. Founded in 1989 by six Japanese American women as a non-profit organization, APICHA occupies a valuable role in the Asian Pacific American community by helping its HIV-infected clients deal with the problems that arise from their condition.

Clients meet with the case management who then refers them to the appropriate medical or financial services and programs that can help them. APICHA uses the services of bilingual interpreters to bridge the linguistic gap between the doctor and the patient. Aside from serving as an intermediary in the community, APICHA also works to help prevent the increase of HIV infection through grassroots outreach. APICHA's involvement in community outreach includes organizing youth groups, support groups, and sponsoring educational workshops on nutrition, safe sex, and understanding the implications of the HIV virus. Contrary to popular opinion, not everyone infected with the virus is gay. Some of APICHA's clients were infected through heterosexual contact with infected members or through contaminated blood transfusions. APICHA also offers free acupuncture and free yoga sessions for its clients.

The significant lack of characters living with HIV in Asian Pacific American media imply the extent of the shame and guilt associated with the HIV virus. The incidents of HIV infection cases are rising. Wei-Wei Li, a peer advocate who serves as an interpreter, said it arises from a lack of communication between infected members and their partners. Infected members either may not know they are infected or fear telling others because of potential ostracism from others.

"They don't let others know about the disease. They just hide it because it's shameful to have this disease. I'm sure this is true for other cultures too," said Wei-Wei. She explained that the reluctance arose from an attitude of preferred ignorance. "They don't understand it and they don't want to talk about it."

However, attitudes of voluntary ignorance can be dangerous and downright fatal in the case of the HIV virus. The best cure of HIV is prevention and APICHA works hard to prevent the HIV virus from spreading. This would be impossible without the help of interpreters like Wei-Wei who perform a valuable service by providing a linguistic link between doctors, clients, and administrators. Wei-Wei found her experience at APICHA very gratifying because her interpreting services helped clients be more compliant with the doctors' instructions once they understood them. Besides, she also ended up enjoying working with her co-workers, "I really liked it there. Our clients were happy with the care given by APICHA."

Check out www.apicha.org for in-depth information on APICHA's history, to find out how you can volunteer, or to see what services it offers for Asian Pacific Americans living with HIV.