What Can Students Do to Fight AIDS?
Today we have a guest post from Kate Otto, program director for the Keep a Child Alive College Program. The organization helps fight AIDS in Africa and has organized a Student AIDS Summit on November 14-15 to inform US students about what they can do to help stop the AIDS pandemic. Kate contacted me to let me know what an important part students can play in fighting AIDS, so I asked her to write down a few ways that students can stand up and help out:
The average high school or college student has never known a world without AIDS and in fact, many students are the same age as AIDS. More than 25 years into the pandemic, over 25 million are dead as a result. Even though it is 100% preventable and 100% treatable, AIDS continues to kill millions of people each year. So, what can you as a student do to fight the spread of HIV and the global AIDS pandemic?
1. Read up! Know your facts and understand the intricacies and urgencies of the global AIDS pandemic. Subscribe to an RSS feed or e-mail Newsletter like Kaiser Network to keep consistently updated with AIDS in the news.
Also see: www.avert.org / www.unaids.org / www.aidsinafrica.net
www.globalaidsalliance.org
www.globalhealth.org/view_top.php3?id=227
www.globalhealth.org/view_top.php3?id=228
www.care.org/campaigns/hiv.asp?
www.data.org/issues/aids.html
www.mercycorps.org/topics/hivaids
www.youthaids.org
http://www.who.int/hiv/en/index.html
2. Become a Drug Dealer: 6.7 million people globally and 5.9 million people in Africa still do not have access to lifesaving AIDS treatment. Fund the provision of antiretroviral drugs by supporting an organization that does so, like Keep a Child Alive, specifically with their College Program.
3. Protect yourself and know your status: For every person put on AIDS treatment across the world, another three become newly infected with the virus. It is important that college students practice safe sex and engage in healthy relationships where sex is negotiated. Find a testing center near your – get tested and bring your partner.
4. Know the legislation and demand effective policy: Although the US Government recently authorized $48 billion dollars for AIDS relief via PEPFAR (The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) there are pieces of the legislation that may be hindering its ability to address the pandemic. Learn the caveats of the Plan and demand your lawmakers make the right choice.
5. Volunteer at home or abroad: See the issue firsthand by volunteering at a local AIDS hospice or service center, or travel abroad and work on an HIV/AIDS or health project, or with a community affected by the disease.
6. Can’t go to Africa? Take the Journey with someone who has been. Alicia Keys, Paul Taylor, and Darrell James Roodt can all take you there.
7. Raise awareness: Find or create a high-traffic area - host a car wash, a bake sale, a dance-a-thon, a battle of the bands, or a fashion show – and spread the word that AIDS is still a crisis. Pass out information about how to help. Celebrate World AIDS Day (December 1, 2008) with an event that informs and makes a call to action.
In 2007 alone, 2.1 million people died as result of AIDS, and 2.5 million people were newly infected with HIV – over half of these were in young people aged 15-24. The time is now for young people take responsibility over our own lives and to address this pandemic in every way we can.
