APRI Offering Free Health Tests at Cape Verdean Festival

On Sunday, July 9 beginning at 11 a.m. at India Point Park, APRI (AIDS Project Rhode Island) will be offering free rapid HIV, HCV, and Syphilis testing along with glucose and blood pressure checks at this year's Cape Verdean Festival. Smoking, diabetes and other health information material will also be available at the APRI health tent.

The free health tests are in conjunction with many of APRI's community partners including Lifespan Community Health Institute, Healthcentric Advisors, RI Quitline, ACOS, the Rhode Island Department of Health and the Miriam Hospital.

"We hope that we can have an impact on the Rhode Island Cape Verdean community through this event," said APRI Executive Director Stephen Hourahan. "We view this as the beginning of a partnership between ourselves and the community to help stop the spread of HIV and continue to teach new audiences how important it is to have testing available."

Both Creole and Portuguese translators will be available at the event to provide further information and assistance where needed.

The Rhode Island Cape Verdean Independence day festival dates back to 1976 and is the longest running Cape Verdean festival in the United States. The festival will celebrate Cape Verdean culture and heritage with music and dancing as well as food. Other tents at the event will feature local artists as well as other health, wellness and educational displays.

The one-day event is hosted by the Rhode Island Cape Verdean Heritage Subcommittee.

APRI is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing compassionate, non-judgmental and collaborative response to the needs of people infected, affected and at-risk of HIV/AIDS, and is a division of Family Service of Rhode Island.

For more information visit www.aidsprojectri.org or www.familyserviceri.org