- Begins remodel of “Safe Space,” a place for social entrepreneurship and fellowship with more than 350 square meters of space.
- Conducts 1,500 HIV tests and distributes 120,000 condoms per year
- Has two offices, in Zona Romantica and Versalles, plus a permanent information booth in Lazaro Cardenas Park, a laboratory, and 250 patient visits each month.
- Employing 15 associates with specialties in sexual and emotional health.
The organization Solidaridad Ed Thomas, AC (SETAC) celebrated 13 years responding to HIV and the fight against exclusion, with the unique mission to offer integrated health and wellness services and programs focused on the LGBTIQ Community and free from stigma and discrimination.
Paco Arjona Barbosa, executive director of SETAC, shared that, since 2009, the association’s vision has always been to establish by 2025 a self-sufficient Center of Integrated Health and Wellness Services, staffed by those who share an institutional commitment to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transexual, Transvestite, Intersex and Queer (LGBTTTIQ) Community.
“All these years, respect and fraternity have been our main values, so we have maintained an ethical attitude toward all our clients without caring about their sexual, economic, or social conditions, and it’s why we’ve built good relationships among everyone with affection, unity, and connection. As a result, SETAC has achieved international recognition, and thus Puerto Vallarta is positioned as a unique place in the world in LGBT+ health care and prevention,” he said.
He shared that SETAC currently is employing 15 people, among them bilingual physicians specializing in STIs, PrEP, PEP and general medicine; two bilingual psychologists expert in healthy LGBT+ relationships and sign language, respectively; a nurse, a sexual therapy counselor, a biopharmacological chemist, a marketing and communications team, and administrative staff.
For his part, the director of community outreach, Fernando Martinez, confirmed that SETAC will maintain its commitment to equality because “we know how to value the interests and needs of others, and we have the unbreakable commitment to achieve or fulfill what we’ve promised for the benefit of all.”
He added that in the last few years, the organization has conducted more than 1,500 HIV tests each year, along with testing for syphilis and hepatitis B and C. “We’ve given out more than 120,000 condoms annually, and we’ve opened new spaces to continue spreading the word that HIV is treatable until becoming undetectable,” he said.
Doctor Miguel Buenrostro, medical services director, mentioned unity, service and solidarity as other SETAC values, such that “each person who works here, donates here, or receives a service here is an important link to achieve a common good; we are committed to help and resolve, always with the ideal to assist others through fraternity and empathy.”
“One of the biggest achievements that we’ve had in these years has been to bring PrEP to Puerto Vallarta, a treatment of one pill per day to avoid HIV transmission. We are currently seeing more than 250 patients monthly consulting about STIs and other infections. Our medical services continue to grow in service to the community,” he said.
Among other things, Victor Espindola, director of institutional development, reminds that SETAC also offers services of courses, workshops, linkages for urgent cases, channeling patients to existing public and private medical services, along with a number of public programs and policies in collaboration with other institutions.
“In 2009, SETAC proposed to have a community center, and this year 2022 we celebrate our anniversary by fixing up and remodeling a building in Emiliano Zapata where, with more than 350 square meters, we will have a Safe Space for a LGBTI kitchen, a sewing workshop, and a cooperative beauty salon, where we’ll encourage social entrepreneurship and workplace inclusion among our community,” he concluded.
