Voces Latinas HIV Network's 14th Annual Women's Luncheon

On May 12, Voces Latinas in collaboration with Queens HIV Care Network will host its 14th Annual Women's Luncheon from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Riccardo's by the Bridge in Long Island City. This year's theme asks, "Who is your (S)hero?" We would like to recognize and honor the many unsung heroes who have directly or incidentally improved the quality of life of many of our survivors.

"It's that person who always been there to support and help us continue past these difficult moments," said Alex Cortes from Voces Latinas. "We want people to identify someone who helped them in the past. We have four people to share their stories, the end of which was successful. Like they had difficult moments, but are doing better, such as survivors of domestic violence or people living with HIV. They know they're going to be called up as heroes, but as a surprise, we have a special guest from the agency to introduce them."

Voces Latinas explained that every so often, we find individuals in our paths who inspire us to be better persons, who make a substantive contribution to our well-being, who makes us feel safe, who help us unconditionally during our times of needs, who believe in us, and who hold our hands through the good and bad so we may move forward.

We would like to celebrate them and acknowledge their particular role in making our loads lighter, our hearts bigger, and our spirits stronger as survivors of violence and/or HIV or activists in the fight to intervene in these health Disparities. It can be your mother, friend, neighbor, co-worker, or whoever else meets that criterion in your life. Only you know. We ask you to let us know so we can honor them accordingly.

The Women's Luncheon program will include education and information on resources, an update on our present and future programming, performances, raffles, an auction and a special screening of our seven-minute short entitled, "One more Test, One more Life." This short will reflect on our 2015 campaign of the same name. It will be an opportunity to (re)connect with our work, while also learning ways to support it.

In previous years, this event has brought together women and stakeholders to discuss the current status of HIV/AIDs within and outside of our community. The focus has been to learn more about prevention and connect to resources. The topics have ranged from violence prevention, immigration, mental health and many others.

Speakers include Dr. Demetre Daskalakis from the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; Trime Kaja from the NYC Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs; Rita Abadi from the Mount Sinai Medical Center; Angelica Ramirez from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and John Ruscillo from the NYC Human Resources Administration.

This year, in addition to building on our previous legacy, we would like to also raise the necessary funds to continue expanding our vision and advancing our mission to reduce the rate of HIV transmission and violence among women.

So while the event will take place at a beautiful, familiar location, it requires a higher fee for us to take on. We believe our community deserves an afternoon of education, entertainment, and (re)connecting. Therefore, in order for us to reserve the venue we will need to charge a registration fee for the first time in the 14 years we have been hosting the Women's Luncheon.

"We were doing it for free, but we don't have a funder or anyone who gives us money, so covering the venue and food was getting expensive," said Cortes. "The whole event is kind of an educational day, because people are talking housing, healthcare, mental health, HIV, and everything is included. We thought maybe people would be unable to pay and register, but the response this year is great!"

The turnout continues to grow each year and we want to make this luncheon an even more memorable one. After all, it is the only event in the borough of Queens that focuses on the intersecting issues of violence, HIV and women. We intend to offer a new experience for all of our guests at this year's event.

Voces Latinas is a culturally competent grassroots organization that seeks to reduce the numerous barriers to care faced by immigrant Latin@s. At Voces Latinas, the particulars of individual cases is often examined against the broader cultural context in which they occur and the health effects of social and economic structures. We firmly believe in empowering, educating and providing leadership and advocacy trainings for our community in order to mobilize meaningful change.

Voces Latinas is embedded in the tradition of the cultures we serve, and thus our vision does mirror the diversity of our community, the relevant difficulties they face, and the tools we put forward to collectively build a healthier Queens community. Queens HIV Care Network also shares a similar vision, which is to enhance the coordination of existing HIV/AIDS services, to increase community awareness of HIV/AIDS services, and to develop strategies for expanding HIV services for the borough of Queens.

The network serves as a forum for customers and providers for HIV/AIDS services in the borough of Queens. Once more we extend an invitation to healthcare providers from all parts of Queens and the greater New York City area to participate. Rest assured that we will also have new and diverse participants to highlight how and why violence remains a co-factor to HIV/AIDS. We will continue to offer comprehensive resources at this event, but we also would like to share our challenges, victories and powers to improve the lives of our families and community together.

This event will directly benefit all of the women who live with or at risk for HIV and domestic violence through the services we offer at Voces Latinas. Your contribution will directly impact the lives of women in Queens. As our planning committee prepares for this undertaking, we would like to ask for your support. If you would like to make a non-monetary donation for our auction or raffles or if you would like to donate services, please know that any and all support is greatly appreciated.

Tickets range from $300 for a table to general admission tickets for $40 and only $25 if you belong to an affiliated agency. Each ticket affords you a walk through our red carpet, a commemorative journal, breakfast and lunch, full participation at the event, and an inspirational time. You can also buy a ticket for someone who you think is a (S)hero. There are only 200 available seats for this event.

If you are unable to attend but still would like to honor your (S)hero, you can purchase an ad in our commemorative journal. We will send one directly to you as a memento. If you would like to promote your business through the purchase of an advertisement in our journal, you can directly contact us as well.

We thank you in advance for your support. We look forward to the 14th Annual Women's Luncheon. Your generosity will make a big difference in our community by allowing us to continue and grow in our work. Remember, every donation makes a difference, regardless of size. Please feel free to give us a call if you have any questions or concerns.

"Please get your ticket as soon as possible so we can count on your presence," said Cortes. "We want to encourage women living with HIV or domestic violence to get this information. It is so important."