About Us

Voices of Women of Color Against HIV/AIDS (VOW) is a collective of women of color, including women of African descent, Latinas, Asians and Pacific Islanders and Native women, at the forefront of the battle against HIV/AIDS in New York City. VOW provides a forum for women of color whose lives are disproportionately affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, to share their experiences and their realities and bring their voice to the center of any initiative designed and implemented to fight AIDS in our communities. We provide a united voice to represent the thinking of a community of women of color with diversity of race and ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity, age, class, HIV status and country of origin.

PRINCIPLES
• Women of color experience HIV/AIDS as both a social and political problem.
• Women of color know best what promotes and stems the spread of HIV/AIDS in our communities.
• Women of color can mobilize against HIV/AIDS from a position of strength despite the existence of external and internal oppressive factors.

GOALS
• To increase the involvement of women of color in all aspects of the efforts against the disease including: formulating policy, conducting outreach, providing education, delivering services, designing programs, performing evaluation, implementing and investigating research.
• To provide a forum for developing policy positions and mechanisms for ensuring that issues and perspectives of women of color are represented in policy formulation and debate.