The purpose and mission of the National Community Advisory Board is to provide on-going community, scientific, psycho-social and political input to the national WIHS agenda; assure that WIHS participants are representatives of the community at large; to inform, educate and support these participants over time; Help design mechanisms to assure access of HIV infected/affected women to WIHS research sites and retention of these participants over time; advocate for adequate research funding, to allow the full WIHS research agenda to be fulfilled; provide support for local community advisory boards and encourage involvement at the local level; facilitate translation of WIHS-related information to the community; represent and be accessible to community members for WIHS-related concerns.