Kids educate their peers on HIV & AIDS

New Haven, Conn. (WTNH) - Statistics show an increasing number of African American and Hispanic young teens and adults testing 'positive' for HIV.

A group of young people in New Haven is spending the summer talking about HIV and AIDS. Their motto is: 'Divided by Race - Unified to be safe.'

Those kids wrote a rap to get other kids to listen. "Protect yourself...that's all you can do in a world of temptation...that's all over you."

"It will grab their attention," said Jimmie Harris of the AIDS Interfaith Peer Educator Program. "I think they would look at it and really understand what we are talking about and be like oh wow, let me stop doing what I'm doing."

This summer these teens signed onto the AIDS Interfaith Peer Educator program to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS. "I didn't know that HIV had different stages and that AIDS was the last stage," said Yaneris Gomez who attends the program. "That was shocking to me. I thought it was two different things."

It was also shocking for kids to learn that there are teens who are infected by HIV who don't even know they have it. "Mainly, the purpose of our outreach is to ask these kids to get out and get tested because we definitely know they are out there, they have just not been identified yet," said Bonnye Cofield the AIDS Interfaith Network Executive Director.

33 million people living with HIV worldwide. So kids are putting together a presentation and a skit about everyday life to educate their peers. "The mission of this group is not only to spread awareness about HIV and AIDS but also to become a peer buddy," said Earron Williams an AIDS Interfaith Peer Educator Coordinator. They want kids to say, "listen do you need to go tested, we'll go get tested together."

"A lot of my friends do a lot of things without knowing what they are doing," said Gomez. "So being able to talk to people about it, I think it will help save their lives."

The group of 20 will take their show on the road to places like the Yale School of Medicine and the Boys and Girls Club of New Haven.