| Milk Completes First Year of Internships |  |
| Milk completes first year of sexual health internship program, looks ahead to more intern support for expanding online community of gay and bisexual Latinos. Mexico City, Mexico (August 29, 2005) -- With its summer intern now returning to San Diego State University to finish her last semester, Milk México begins its ongoing announce-and-recruit efforts. The Mexico City-based non-profit organization focuses on sex, sexuality and sexual health issues for men and like many non-profit organizations, it relies on volunteers and interns to advance its activities. Milk began its internship program last year, when its founder was on summer hiatus from the Institute of International Education’s Office for Latin America. His experience there motivated him to launch internships for the non-governmental organization which he leads. John Rozzo, a longtime US resident in Mexico, says it was a natural fit. “I put my passion for the web together with my professional work to create and announce a safe, flexible internship program here in Mexico City.” Milk’s internships permit service learning for those who just want to live abroad while helping a non-profit, or academic credit for students who need to fulfill university requirements. In fact, the response to its announcement was surprising, says Rozzo. Immediately after posting the internship opportunity at several leading job portals, inquiries came in from around the globe. Surprisingly, he adds, over 80% were women and from outside the USA. The first intern arrived last November from Slovakia, staying for 4 months. Taylor Butler arrived at the start of June, living and working in Mexico City for 2-1/2 busy months. One of her projects was to publish the year-long backlog of news, health articles and directory listings as well as register the site in search engines. Not only was their intern able to accomplish all that, but she also helped organize the website’s membership & affiliate program to be launched this Fall with the next intern. For her part, intern Taylor Butler says, “The time went by so quickly for me. I learned a lot about website development and how Milk is trying to use the Internet to educate Spanish-speakers, something I wouldn’t have thought would be so important.” But evidence demonstrates that is vital. WHO/UNAIDS’s “Access for All” has noted that the distribution pattern of HIV infections neatly echoes the distribution pattern of people with “poor information” and that a critical component of access must include access for communities affected by HIV/AIDS. Although web usage continues to rise there remains a dearth of Spanish-language health sites, particularly for those seeking advice on sex practices, sexuality issues and disease prevention. Recent results are encouraging. Milk’s site is seeing rising traffic from not only Mexico but also Argentina, Chile, Spain and the USA. According to HispanoClick.com, Mexico's population is approximately 102 million and U.S.-based Mexican-decent population is roughly 24 million. “Those are significant numbers, so we can extrapolate from that figure to generalize about our audience; we have a large audience out there waiting for us to provide info and a sense of community,” says Rozzo. The organization will continue to invest time and enery in its website, where it can reach men nationally and internationally efficently and effectively. It also looks forward to welcoming new interns who want to make an invaluable contribution to sex education. More information about the internship is available at Milk’s institutional website at www.milk.org.mx and you can also visit their expanding, information-rich and fun site at www.milk.com.mx. About Milk México, AC Contact |
Milk México, AC
...es una organización sin fines de lucro dedicada a promover lo sano y responsable del sexo, sexualidad y salud sexual y reproductiva masculina.
Baja la filosofía "sexy. sabroso. saludable.", Milk realiza proyectos con fines educativos, brinda servicios informativos y impulsa acciones a favor de la salud y bienestar del hombre.
