Global Awareness in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS is more than a global health problem. It is affecting development efforts of every variety and the billions of impoverished people that such efforts are designed to assist. With the loss of countless skilled laborers and workers, many financially strapped countries are losing their ability to compete and progress economically.

Vital human resources, including administrators, teachers, nurses, technicians and mechanics, are being devastated by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. When struggling countries lose their qualified personal in such numbers, additional money has to be spent on recruitment and training. And while some in the developing world are fortunate enough to remain personally untouched by the disease, everyone is affected by its broader impact. This is proving to be a daunting challenge for both the public and private sectors.

Tens of millions of children have been orphaned in the past decade, putting a huge strain on countries with little or no social welfare structure and leaving them critically unprepared to deal with the growing crisis. A whole generation of children is being raised in the absence of parents; they are lacking teachers and guidance. Decades of development throughout the world are now being threatened, particularly in Africa where the HIV/AIDS epidemic is the worst. The very foundations of many programs in developing countries are in danger.

• No less than 40 million people are currently infected with HIV worldwide, and 20 million people have died of AIDS-related causes.
• Sub-Saharan Africa is home to only 11 percent of the world's population, yet it has the highest occurrence of HIV/AIDs in any region in the world: 70 percent of all people infected with the disease live in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Three million people died of AIDS-related causes in 2003, with 75 percent of these deaths occurring in sub-Saharan Africa.
• In 2003, five million people became infected with HIV, and 3.2 million of these new infections appeared in sub-Saharan Africa.
• 90 percent of the 40 million people who have contracted HIV/AIDS are in their most productive years.
• Young people between the ages of 15-24 account for 42 percent of new HIV infections and represent almost one third of the people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. Every day, 7,000 young people under the age of 25 contract HIV.
• Worldwide, 14 million children have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS. By 2010, the number of children orphaned by AIDS is predicted to rise to close to 25 million.

(Figures from 2003 UNAIDS and ILO numbers)


Worryingly, many westerners seem to be losing their ability to recognize HIV/AIDS as a true global emergency, as the disease begins to be conceived of as an "African problem," a crisis of the destitute, something practically irrelevant to people living in cultures that are not confronted with daily reminders of the devastating effects of the disease. Since the statistical information about the disease is so discouraging, much of the world seems to have decided that it is a problem that rises above the individual, a problem relevant only to governments and international NGOs.

Yet, because of the sheer size of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, it has become a problem that can no longer be addressed solely by international bodies. Support is needed from all sectors, both private and public, regardless of size or focus. People need to help advocate for responsible and compassionate government policies. They need to lobby drug companies to dramatically lower prices on essential yet unaffordable retroviral drugs, and to support efforts abroad that are dealing with sensitization, prevention, and health care at a local level. However, to accomplish this renewal of support, people who are not regularly confronted with the crisis must once again feel like they have a global connection.

During the course of the project, volunteers and medics from all corners of the world, along with Africans who live with the disease or work to slow its spread, have been profiled and interviewed on this site. Additionally, this site has sought to detail the efforts made by organizations on the frontlines of this struggle, making a special effort to clarify what sort of support will best help them to achieve their goals.