WORLD AIDS DAY

“Sometimes I have a terrible feeling that I am dying not from the virus, but from being untouchable.” - Amanda Heggs

The first of December is recognised internationally as World AIDS Day. It is the culmination of AIDS Awareness Week, which begins annually on the 24th of November. Both events aim to raise community awareness throughout the world about HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), including the need for support for and understanding of people with HIV/AIDS, and the need for ongoing education and prevention initiatives.

The theme for the 2007 Australian World AIDS Day campaign is: ‘HIV/AIDS: Prevention is everybody’s business’. The theme was chosen to remind people that HIV/AIDS remains a serious disease for which there is still no cure, and that awareness and prevention remain the best defences against its spread.

The campaign aims to increase knowledge about the impact of HIV/AIDS on everyone in the community. It is a health issue that affects everyone and therefore prevention is everybody’s responsibility. The World AIDS Day campaign also aims to inform people about the important care and support services that are available for people affected by HIV, and to emphasise that people with HIV/AIDS need encouragement, understanding and acceptance.

Africa remains the country in which AIDS exacts the greatest toll and it still is the place where poverty, warfare, corruption and misinformation make HIV infection difficult to prevent and treat. Many countries are becoming grossly crippled socially and politically by the increasing numbers of AIDS deaths Malawi is one of these. Hundreds of thousands of deaths mean that an equally high number of AIDS orphans are found in the population.

Here is an AIDS orphans musical group singing out in hope, with their spirit soaring high above their poverty and their adversity. Their instruments are discarded gas cans, animals hides and whatever else they can scavenge to produce a tune. But they do make music. Listen to the music of children orphaned by AIDS and visit www.ministryofhope.org