Bruised Reed Ministry
Reverend Rosa Caraballo, Founder & Executive Director
Reverend Rosa J Caraballo founded Bruised Reed Ministry (BRM) in the 1980’s in response to the increasing AIDS-related deaths among women and children in the Bronx. BRM advocates for individuals living with HIV/AIDS and their survivors by providing holistic healing services such as HIV/AIDS awareness seminars in English and Spanish, a support network for widows, orphans and guardians and an annual AIDS-in-the-Church Conference to educate clergy and lay leaders.
BRM runs several ongoing programs to provide spiritually and culturally sensitive prevention education and treatment information to Latino churches and their communities. The Covenant of Hope trains Latina leaders from different faith backgrounds and ages as peer educators in their churches. The Support Orphans and Widow Project addresses family needs as they cope with the death of loved ones and provides early permanency planning and entitlement benefits through linkages with other organizations. Annual events include Madre Poitivia, a Mother’s Day celebration for women with HIV/AIDS, the AIDS-in-the-Church Conference, Candlelight and Healing Service, Back to School Party, Thanksgiving Boxes of Love and Three Kings Celebration for families affected by HIV/AIDS. In 2000, Treat Me Right was launched as a collaborative project with faith-based ministries in ten churches in the South Bronx and Northern Manhattan to educate African American and Latina women about HIV/AIDS testing and to provide access to health care.