This Saturday, as a global community, we will observe World AIDS Day. This year’s theme is Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise – an appeal to remind us that the fight against AIDS is not over.
We have all seen the commercials and ads from organizations like ONE.org, DATA, World Vision. We’ve seen celebrities like Bono, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, and Madonna don their grungies and head into the poorest communities around the world to raise awareness for everything from disaster relief, Malaria, AIDS orphans, food shortages, and lack of clean water. But one crisis stands above them all as one of History’s worst. Here are a few statistics and quotes from noted World leaders on the AIDS epidemic . . .
The AIDS Crisis
Africa has been hit harder by the HIV/AIDS virus than any other region of the world. More than 17 million Africans have died from AIDS and another 25 million are infected with the HIV virus, approximately 1.9 million of whom are children.
Every day in Africa:
• HIV/AIDS kills 6,600 people
• 8,800 people are infected with the HIV virus
• 1,400 newborn babies are infected during childbirth or by their mothers' milk.
“There is a continent—Africa—being consumed by flames. I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did—or did not do—to put the fire out in Africa. History, like God, is watching what we do.” Bono
“I believe that this could very well be looked back on as the sin of our generation. I look at my parents and ask, where were they during the civil rights movement? I look at my grandparents and ask, what were they doing when the holocaust in Europe was occurring with regard to the Jews, and why didn’t they speak up? And when we think of our great, great, great-grandparents, we think how could they have sat by and allowed slavery to exist? And I believe that our children and their children, 40 or 50 years from now, are going to ask me, what did you do while 40 million children became orphans in Africa?”
-Rich Sterns, President of World Vision
“By any criterion, AIDS must be considered the Great Plague of the 20th Century.”
-Dr. Neal Nathanson, director of the Office of AIDS Research
In response to World AIDS Day, we will have with us this Sunday at iforty, a guest speaker from Africa. His name is Otieno Thomas and he is the director of the VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Treatment Center for AIDS) Clinic in Kisumu, Kenya. We will also have information on a few organizations where you can get involved.
Check out our list for some of the groups and organizations that are already doing amazing works in Africa to help fight the AIDS pandemic . . .
We have all seen the commercials and ads from organizations like ONE.org, DATA, World Vision. We’ve seen celebrities like Bono, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, and Madonna don their grungies and head into the poorest communities around the world to raise awareness for everything from disaster relief, Malaria, AIDS orphans, food shortages, and lack of clean water. But one crisis stands above them all as one of History’s worst. Here are a few statistics and quotes from noted World leaders on the AIDS epidemic . . .
The AIDS Crisis
Africa has been hit harder by the HIV/AIDS virus than any other region of the world. More than 17 million Africans have died from AIDS and another 25 million are infected with the HIV virus, approximately 1.9 million of whom are children.
Every day in Africa:
• HIV/AIDS kills 6,600 people
• 8,800 people are infected with the HIV virus
• 1,400 newborn babies are infected during childbirth or by their mothers' milk.
“There is a continent—Africa—being consumed by flames. I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did—or did not do—to put the fire out in Africa. History, like God, is watching what we do.” Bono
“I believe that this could very well be looked back on as the sin of our generation. I look at my parents and ask, where were they during the civil rights movement? I look at my grandparents and ask, what were they doing when the holocaust in Europe was occurring with regard to the Jews, and why didn’t they speak up? And when we think of our great, great, great-grandparents, we think how could they have sat by and allowed slavery to exist? And I believe that our children and their children, 40 or 50 years from now, are going to ask me, what did you do while 40 million children became orphans in Africa?”
-Rich Sterns, President of World Vision
“By any criterion, AIDS must be considered the Great Plague of the 20th Century.”
-Dr. Neal Nathanson, director of the Office of AIDS Research
In response to World AIDS Day, we will have with us this Sunday at iforty, a guest speaker from Africa. His name is Otieno Thomas and he is the director of the VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Treatment Center for AIDS) Clinic in Kisumu, Kenya. We will also have information on a few organizations where you can get involved.
Check out our list for some of the groups and organizations that are already doing amazing works in Africa to help fight the AIDS pandemic . . .
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