Acercamiento Hispano, taking advantage of his expertise to outreach the Hispanic Community, conducted an HIV/AIDS Awareness Survey. A total of 450 individuals were interviewed for this needs assessment. These interviews were conducted in the counties of Richland, Lexington, Fairfield and Newberry in farms, migrant camps, apartment complexes, Mexican stores and other places where Hispanics were highly concentrated.

The findings of this survey helped Acercamiento Hispano to accurately develop the intervention plans for ContraSIDA, according to Risk Detection and HIV knowledge of the Hispanic population in the Midlands. Some of the findings of the HIV/AIDS Awareness Survey are presented here:

Risk Detection:
· 48% of the participants use alcohol. The consumption of alcohol is seen as a contributing factor to HIV risk due to their living conditions. A great number of Hispanics are living away from their immediate families and generally share housing with other males. In these circumstances it is common for them to hire prostitutes who engage in sexual relations with all the residents of the house. Therefore, out of boredom and away from the social restraints of their culture and families, they drink excessively, which leads them to perform acts they typically wouldn’t do.
· The alcohol is a generator of risky behaviors like unprotected sex, sexual promiscuity and drug use. 42% answered “No” to the use of condoms, and a disturbing 44% answered “No” or “I don’t know” to the question “Do you protect yourself from HIV/AIDS?” 17% admitted to have two or more sexual partners. 10% indicated they have used drugs, 4% use cocaine and 2% admitted to injected drug use.

HIV Awareness
· A disturbing 55% of the total answered “No” or “Just a little” to “are you informed about HIV?” This is a direct result of a lack of culturally appropriate outreach and information. Other agencies that have attempted to educate Hispanics did not take into account the cultural differences, the diversity within the Hispanic population, and the literature was not designed with Hispanics in mind, The consequences of such actions are that 21% consider themselves at risk of HIV and 31% are not sure if they are at risk.
· An alarming 60% said they didn’t know the difference between HIV and AIDS. We found that a generous percentage of the remaining 40% had misconceptions and erroneous knowledge about HIV.
· The key to preventing this lack of knowledge is to educate the emerging population. While the numbers are growing fast, the numbers are still small enough that successful outreach is possible. Thus preventing an HIV explosion in the Hispanic population.