World AIDS Day

Time to take a moment out of my day to be a little less self-absorbed and think about someone else for a change. Not just one person, but 44 million other people.

World Aids Day is Friday, December 1st. I know it's easy to get desensitized to things in the world we live in. We're bombarded with the troubles of so many, we hear so much, that you can become immune to it. But I'm asking you to listen up, please.

Why care about what's happening a world away? To people you don't even know? People are dying, at a rate that you've probably never even realized.

Did you know that 6600 people will die today in Africa due to HIV/AIDS? Everyday. Not just today, but tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that.

Let me put this into perspective for you. 3000 people died on 9-11. So more than twice that amount of people will die today, tomorrow...and...well you get the idea.

If that number can't put it into perspective...how about this number. More people gobally will die of HIV/AIDS this week, than the 58,000 who lost their lives in Vietnam. Staggering, isn't it?

What's worse is that the cycle doesn't end there. 15 million children have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS, and are often times left to fend for themselves or to be cared for by older siblings.


So yes, these facts, these numbers are heartbreaking and may make things seem hopeless. But all is not lost. One of the coolest things you can do is sign up to sponsor a child in need. You don't even have to go it alone, sign up to help a child with a group of friends, with your family...spend a little less this Holiday season on presents for eachother, and instead give the gift of life to a child who needs you.

World Vision also has a website that lists 12 other ways you can help out!

Please visit: www.worldvision.org/hope

You can check out a slide show the L.A. Times did here.

If these numbers don't move your hearts...maybe this will:

RICH STEARNS, president of WORLD VISION: "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, what did you do while 40 million children became orphans in Africa?"

A few other websites for your consideration:

Product Red...various products available in the colour red to help support the fight against HIV/AIDS.
World Aids Day...A website dedicated to this Friday, with personal stories, ribbons, and importantly information.
World Aids Day Myspace...For you Myspacers out there.
Red Ribbon Fondation...More information

BONO: "What is happening to Africa mocks our pieties, doubts our concern, and questions our commitment to the whole concept of equality...Because if we're honest, there's no way we could conclude that such mass death DAY AFTER DAY would ever be allowed to happen anywhere else."

Wear a Red Ribbon this Friday and show your support for the Fight Against HIV/AIDS.