happy world AIDS day

When I started this blog back in April, I wrote a belated 'Happy Earth Day' post just after Earth Day. But today I'm writing a punctual 'Happy World AIDS Day' post. It's strange to put the word "happy" in front of a call to remember the struggle and loss of those affected by HIV/AIDS, isn't it? But didn't it get your attention?

I haven't thought seriously about HIV/AIDS since late 2006. That's when I returned from living in Ghana where I served in the Peace Corps working on HIV prevention education and providing support for People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Since then it's been a luxury to concentrate my energy solely on setting up my life back in this country - getting a job, buying a house, planning for the future, etc. But today is World AIDS Day, after all. It's a good opportunity to refocus my attention on the continuing global health crisis that is HIV/AIDS.

My contribution today will be to call your attention to current information about HIV/AIDS. Our president has issued a proclamation that contains up-to-date figures on the number of PLWHA and the recent progress made in decreasing the number of infections. Also from our government, www.aids.gov has not only basic information about HIV, but ideas for how you can stand in solidarity with PLWHA using the social media of your choice. I plan to attend an event later today at the university campus where I work, which will consist of an AIDS advocacy walk down a busy main street near campus followed by a conversation with several AIDS activists working on the local, national, and international level.

These are my first attempts to get back into the arena of AIDS prevention education and advocacy. They may be small steps, but they are something I can do to honor the memory of the PLWHA I knew in Ghana. Before I went to Africa, HIV was just a scary consequence of unprotected sex, something I had been educated to avoid at all costs. But for more than a year I worked on educating and supporting PLWHA in Sub-Saharan West Africa, where I was able to understand the disease on a whole new level.

I held the hands of dying AIDS patients in their hospital beds. I sat and kept HIV positive people company while they waited for test results. I visited AIDS orphans at their extended families' homes in remote villages. I attended the funerals of PLWA who finally succumbed. All of these brave people brought home to me the real consequences of this indiscriminate and life-altering disease. I thank them for allowing me into their lives during the short time I knew them, and for the rest of my life I will hold their faces and their stories tight in my memory.

I have the luxury of living in a country with a relatively low incidence of HIV infection, but the disease is here all the same. It would be a waste of all my learning to turn away from the effort to increase public awareness and understanding of HIV. I may not be an activist or a crusader, but if I am one person with access to a computer and the Internet, and electricity to power them, then I can contribute to public HIV/AIDS awareness in my own small way. It's the least I can do.