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SPOTLIGHT ON EARS
Reggae Artists Lift Voices To Raise Awareness, Funds to Fight HIV/AIDS (Caribbean Life)
LIFEbeat's Hearts and Voices benefit concert series, the party with a purpose, announces its first reggae HIV/AIDS awareness concert. On July 18 E.A.R.S. Entertainment Group and Power 105.1 FM will team up with LIFEbeat: The Music Industry Fights AIDS to present "Reggae Gold Live 2006 Summer Jump Off"
In this event, the sixth installment of the Hearts and Voices AIDS Benefit
Concert Series, performances are featured from some of reggae's most
popular entertainers and; artists, including: Beenie Man, -Wyfie Wonder, T.O.K.,
Sasha, and Kuicher Don. There will be a special performance by Foxy
Brown.
The concert will take place at Webster Hall located at 125 East 11th Street. between Third and Fourth Avenues in Manhattan. Doors will open at 9:00pm.
For the first time in New York, reggae stars will join together to address the subject of HIV/AIDS and to help bring awareness into their communities. Emphasizing the need for HIV/AIDS prevention and education is critical to the Caribbean community.
Haiti has the largest population of people living with HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean, followed by the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. Other high-risk nations in the Caribbean are the Bahamas, Trinidad, and Tobago, and within the Easer Caribbean, St. Vincent and the Grenadines which has the highest levels in the DECS. With an infection rate of less than 0.1 percent. Cuba has one of the lowest rates in the world.
According to the UNAIDS report, 330,000 people are living with HIV in the Caribbean, 22,000 of whom are children younger than 15 years. The report said that 37,000 became infected with HIV in 2005, and that women comprise 51 percent of adults living with the virus.
The report said that national adult HIV prevalence exceeds 2 percent in Trinidad and Tobago, and 3 percent in the Bahamas and Haiti; while in Cuba, it is 0.1 percent. The report further said AIDS has become the number one cause of death in Guyana among people aged 25-44 years, and national HIV prevalence stood at an estimated at 2. percent in 2005.
The report said in 2005, national adult HIV prevalence in Jamaica was 1.5 percent, with an estimated 25,000adults and children living with the virus.
In Trinidad and Tobago, females in their late teens (15-19 years old) were six times, and in Jamaica two and-a-half times more likely to be HIV infected, compared with males of the same age.
Beenie Man stated, "HIV/AIDS is a serious threat to the Black and West Indian communities, and hip hop and reggae is the voice that speaks to and for our community. I'm proud to lend my voice to fighting the spread of AIDS through the LIFEbeat concert."
"This is an event whose time has come," cited LIFEbeat executive director, John Cannelli. "The growth of HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean community warrants everyone coming together to do their part in helping to educate young people about how to protect themselves. Every life is precious, and we're grateful to all of the artists participating in "Reggae Gold"
