From: rastern@sol.racsa.co.cr
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 1997 23:03:00 -0600 (CST)
Subject: NEWS FROM COSTA RICA

April 30, 1997
News from Triangulo Rosa
For Immediate Release.....


NEW PWA EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM OPENS IN COSTA RICA.

Thanks to a substantial donation from Mr. Warren Allen Smith and another
anonymous donor, Costa Rica´s gay/ lesbian Association Triangulo Rosa will
sponsor a new program coordinated for and by People Living  With AIDS.

A Costa Rican person living with AIDS, Guillermo Murrillo, will  assume
coordination of the Project on May 1st.  Guillermo was diagnosed as HIV+ six
years ago.

The project will function with the following objectives

1) To provide  a source for accepting and channeling complaints about
discrimination and human rights violations such as frequently occurs here in
hospitals and on the job. We will also provide follow-up on the complaints
to see if the situations  are being remediated.

2) To  offer an information center about  medications, their effects, and
whether or not they are available privately and publicly and where.

3)  To continue actions that Triangulo Rosa has  already begun of calling
attention to the need for the government here  to approve payment for the
new retroviral medications as well as pursuing  all legal and administrative
avenues to  obtain access
to these medications.

4) To provide a space and regular series of meetings for HIV+ people to
organize and empower themselves  around issues of human rights and  access
to medications.  This includes  empowerment oriented workshops as well as
more didactic issues about  nutrition, health, medications, etc.

Said Triangulo Rosa President,  Francisco Madrigal, "the empowerment of the
AIDS affected community has been one our goals during the past several
years, and now,thanks to Mr. Smith´s generosity, we have the opportunity to
solidify the  gains we have made."

Murillo stated that "this is an opportunity for me to leave my regular job
and pursue full time the goals of helping our community to gain access to
the new medications that are not  paid for by the government here.  The AIDS
community here has been  up until recently a community of victims without
hope, and the goal of this program is to continue to teach AIDS affected
people that we can take
control of our own  lives, and work to change the horrible human rights
abuses that we face here
in Costa Rica."

 Mr. Smith indicated that he is making the donation in honor of his Costa
Rican lover, Fernando Vargas who died of  AIDS in  1990. Smith indicated
that the other donor is an internationally known writer who wishes to remain
anonymous. Fernando Vargas was the son of Elias and Elena Vargas.

Additional  donations are welcome and can be sent to "patient empowerment
fund" of Triangulo
Rosa, Apartado 1619-4050, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Tel: 506-223-1370, Fax 506-223-3964
e-mail: atrirosa@sol.racsa.co.cr, rastern@sol.racsa.co.cr
Homepage:  www.indiana.edu/~arenal/TR/