around & about

Yesterday was the 1^st December – World AIDS Day.

This randomly picked date (at least I couldn’t find any explanations why it’s the 1^st December) is about increasing awareness, fighting prejudice and improving education about HIV/ AIDS. Today, almost 20 years after the first World AIDS day, those goals are still as important as in the “early days” of the pandemic.

Some statistics from UNAIDS:

Global HIV prevalence (the proportion of people living with the virus) appears to have levelled off. However, the number of people living with HIV has risen to 33.2 million in 2007 from 29.0 million in 2001.

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most affected region. Some 1.7 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2007, bringing to 22.5 million the total number of people living with the virus. Unlike other regions, the majority of people (61%) living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are women.

In 2007 there were almost 20% more new HIV infections in East Asia than in 2001.

There has been an increase in the number of new HIV diagnoses in Western Europe since 2002, AIDS remains one of the leading causes of death in the Caribbean among people aged 25 to 44 years.

You may excuse this unscientific selection of facts from the 2007 AIDS Epidemic Update – but the point I want to make has nothing to do with science anyway.

Yesterday the Ethno Medical Centre (an NGO concerned with health promotion for migrants in Germany and the organisation I’m writing my thesis with) organised an event in the city centre of Hanover. With a little stall, public speeches, support from street performers and walking condoms we caught quite some attention as well as charitable donations.

My personal highlight of the day was when I got into talking with a woman from Lesotho. She told me a lot about the situation in her country - what reminded me so much of my South African experiences…

Being caught up in research and theoretical debates I sometimes feel a little detached from my motivation. When you forget about the purpose of what you are doing work becomes tiring. Encounters like yesterday make you focus on the “WHY” again and bring back energy that was covered with a lot of “HOW”…

I hope that World AIDS day 2007 has been full of inspiring and motivating incidences like the one I experienced!

What I hope even more is that people find means to keep it up!!!

# posted by Carolin @ 6:23 PM