While World AIDS Day is graciously honored by millions around the world on December 1 of every year, the unfortunate truth is that not a single day can fully give justice to the reality that more than 33 million people around the world live with HIV every single day of their lives. Even more difficult to demonstrate in a single day is the significant burden HIV/AIDS holds over Africa and Asia, where crowded populations and abject poverty are far larger problems than in Europe or North America.

Although the rates of HIV are dropping and the measures to prevent further spread are finding results, it is highly likely that the toll taken by the HIV/AIDS pandemic on the children of South Africa will be severe. It is estimated that deaths attributed to HIV/AIDS will leave one in three of the country’s children orphaned by 2015. This staggering figure is only one reason why World AIDS Day is not over; but for only one reason, it foreshadows extremely serious social, economic, and humanitarian problems. This is a concern that requires action on all planes from high levels of government to the most basic levels of community and neighborly care.

Can this be stopped, or at least slowed? Not unless changes happen soon, says Gail Eddy, a researcher at the Institute of Race Relations. The institute’s findings attribute the high number of orphans in coming years to be a result of slow dispersion of anti-retroviral drugs to patients during a six-year period beginning in 2000 and ending with the deaths of roughly 365,000 people — a large number of whom left children behind to be taken into the orphanage system.

While the reasons this happened are not entirely clear, and politics is largely cited as the issue for a delay in medical treatments, this issue cannot be resolved on blame and statistics alone. There will still be children to be raised, medicine to be distributed, dead to be buried and cures to be found. Encouraging discussion, spreading awareness, and showing concern when South Africa has the world’s attention are the ways that we can help foster action. For one third of a significant population’s children to be orphaned and vulnerable would be viewed as unacceptable to ignore if we met this possibility in the United States — but do we see it as unacceptable to ignore if it is another country’s children?

At Ubuntu Now, we absolutely see it as unacceptable. We know that you do, too. But we’d like you to show it by helping our cause. Start with a few clicks: join our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter. Keep going by telling your friends and inviting them to join the cause, too. By keeping informed and becoming aware, you will be helping spread the word so that anyone who can contribute support is able to find us.

World AIDS Day is not just one day on the calendar. It is every day; its impact is mourned well past a period of 24 hours. Let’s make the reality of World AIDS Day last through the World Cup — and far beyond.

Source: AP article, “S. Africa’s slow AIDS response sows orphan time bomb”

Posted under HIV / AIDS