CDC picks Harding for AIDS scholarship

Malama Pono Kaua‘i AIDS Project announced that Faith Harding, HIV prevention specialist, has been chosen by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta to receive a year long scholarship to the Institute for HIV Prevention and Leadership.

Harding is the only specialist chosen from Hawai‘i and one of only 40 chosen nationwide. One of several reasons for awarding the scholarship to Harding is her successful emphasis on women’s health and their risk for HIV, a news release says.

The scholarship pays all expenses for travel and lodging during the week long training sessions held in Atlanta. The first of four sessions begins in January and the sessions continue until graduation in September. The institute’s curriculum is intense and expects scholars to increase leadership skills and well as their educational levels in areas of behavioral sciences, epidemiology, technology and health policy and management, the release says.

“Lessons learned at the Institute will be very applicable to our situation on Kaua‘i,” Harding said. “And lessons learned will apply not just to HIV, but also to the other sexually transmitted diseases presently harming thousands of Kaua‘i citizens. Because Malama Pono has been able to markedly lower the HIV infection rate on Kaua‘i many people don’t see it as a threat anymore. That’s dangerous thinking because we don’t have a vaccine or a cure and co-infection of HIV with other STDs is both a reality on our island and the most likely way that HIV could re-surface. We work to protect our community using the public health model of prevention. The institute will greatly increase my public health skills and enhance Malama Pono’s already strong and very effective partnership with the Department of Health on Kaua‘i and the HIV/STD Prevention Branch in Honolulu.

For more information contact Faith Harding at faith@malama-pono.org or call Malama Pono at 246-9577.