Associate professors of counseling James Sells and Francesca Giordano are working together on a project to reach out to victims of AIDS in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.

Sells, who has been working in Honduras since 2001, rented a home from Enoch Padilla, a physician that operates the only clinic dedicated to HIV intervention and prevention in the city of about 1.25 million people.

The plan is to develop resources for the clinic, Sells said.

An estimated 63,000 people are living with HIV or AIDS in the country, which is slightly more populated than the state of Tennessee, according to the U.S. Government Fact Book.

Also contributing to the problem are Honduran leaders, Sells said.

The government is “not interested in having its HIV status publicized,” Sells said. “This creates a tendency of suppression.”

Catholics, members of Honduras’ prominent denomination, are reluctant to distribute resources, Sells said. Representatives of the Ministry of Health, however, claim the resources are reaching the people.

There are about 60,000 cases of the virus believed to exist right now, Sells said. The Honduran government, however, cites the number of cases as about one-fourth of that, he said.

Sophomore business management major Stephanie Srejmasaid it is great these professors are putting in so much effort to help Honduras.

Junior mathematics education major Jennifer Serviss agreed and said it is a great cause. If she had the chance, she said she would be more than happy to go overseas to help the implementation of the plan.

Giordano maintains the work they do is necessary given the state of the country.

“I am very committed to grassroots, community-based counseling; I do a lot of work with poor people in the United States,” Giordano said. “If you would’ve asked me two years ago if I knew real poverty, I would have said yes. When I went to Honduras for the first time, I saw real poverty for the first time.”