[YL] December 1 Is World AIDS Day

[Lars Hasselblad Torres]

To follow is my WAD2007 message to Peace Tiles peeps. I'd love to  
know what others may have done!
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Hey everybody. Its December 1st.

Across the globe HIV/AIDS in the world - and its effect on human life  
everywhere - is being remembered as a fight that hasn't been won.  
While 2007 saw some signs of hope - the UNAIDS recently reported that  
they had overestimated the extent of the AIDS epidemic and, world- 
wide infections have been falling since the 1990s - a closer look  
behind the numbers reveals that there are many dimensions to the  
epidemic that stand in the way of real progress.

Janet Museveni, first Lady of Uganda, recently wrote about one such  
dimension in her World AIDS Day call for 2007: "In 1998, women  
accounted for 41 percent of HIV-infected adults worldwide. By 2005,  
women made up almost 50 percent, and nearly 60 percent in sub-Saharan  
Africa.

60 percent. That is the same portion of the 33 million infected with  
HIV world-wide who live in sub-Saharan Africa, where efforts to  
combat HIV infection and life with AIDS face shortages - of  
effective, ongoing education, nutrition, and access to basic health  
care.

"The gender imbalance in sub-Saharan Africa is even more striking  
among young people," the First Lady also wrote, "A woman between the  
ages of 15 and 24 is two and a half times more likely to be infected  
than her male peer."

 >> Learn more about HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa at: http:// 
www.avert.org/subaadults.htm

Closer to home (for me), in Washington, DC AIDS was declared a  
"modern epidemic" in the city, where one in 20 district residents is  
infected with HIV and one in 50 has full-blown AIDS. 80% of those  
infections are among Black men, women and teens - and again women  
bear the effects of the epidemic disproportionately: African-American  
women constitute 58 percent of the District’s female population, but  
account for 90 percent of all new female HIV cases.

 >> Learn more about HIV/AIDS in the Capital of the United States at:  
http://tinyurl.com/38yjuo

Global Envision, in their World AIDS Day 2007 commemoration, reports  
that, "Rates of infection are also growing at alarming rates in  
Eastern Europe and Central Asia. According to a 2006 UNAIDS report,  
Uzbekistan and Ukraine have seen their HIV positive population double  
in number since 2001."

 >> Learn more about HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe at: http:// 
www.avert.org/ecstatee.htm

Effective prevention outreach. Addressing gender and violence in our  
communities. Access to healthy food and life-saving drugs. Advanced  
vaccine research.  These are all part of the solution. More  
importantly, AIDS is not just an issue that affects people infected  
with the virus: it affects all of us. Each of us, by committing to  
take action on just one dimension of the global AIDS pandemic, can  
collectively produce phenomenal results.  We can be educators. We can  
help provide access to nutrition. We can contribute to research  
efforts. At a minimum we can share our humanity by showing support  
for people living with AIDS.

If you are not already deeply involved in the global campaign to beat  
back AIDS, this World AIDS Day I encourage you to take a pledge, take  
a stand against AIDS. Help Make AIDS History - and join Global  
Leaders like Hillary Rodham Clinton (umm - yes, that's an  
endorsement!) by making a commitment to Do Something. The best place  
to start that I have found is the Global AIDS Alliance at http:// 
www.globalaidsalliance.org.

Thanks everyone, and keep strong - make love, use a condom - pass it  
on (the message, not the condom)!

Peace,

lars
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Lars Hasselblad Torres
www.mixedmedia.us + www.peacetiles.net
802-563-2757