There are 40 million people worldwide who suffer from HIV/AIDS, and the numbers are on the rise, with five million new infections each year.
World AIDS Day, observed internationally each year on Dec. 1, was commemorated on Georgetown’s campus for the second successive year as the centerpiece of the Georgetown AIDS Coalition’s AIDS Awareness Week.
Participating campus organizations, including H*yas for Choice, the African Society, GU Pride and the School of Foreign Service Social Action Committee, joined forces with the AIDS Coalition to host the week’s events, which included speeches, a film screening of Jeffrey and a candlelight vigil.
Recently, the population that has seen the greatest increase in infections is women of child-bearing age and young girls. They are the theme of this year’s World AIDS Day.
The week was conceived of as a means to raise awareness about AIDS-related issues and present students with more opportunities to involve themselves, according to AIDS Coalition board member Richard Thayer (CAS ‘07).
Yesterday in Red Square, the AIDS Coalition presented thirty pairs of empty shoes in rows to demonstrate visually that thirty people die from AIDS every five minutes.
“We wanted to make it more real, because it’s really easy to hear statistics and think that it does not really affect us,” Samantha Tryon (NHS ‘05), co-founder of the AIDS Coalition, said. “Even though it’s happening far away, you can’t just forget about it.”
The African Studies Program, the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service, the Office of Campus Ministry, the Office of Student Affairs and the School of Nursing and Health Studies sponsored a town hall meeting yesterday entitled “Families on the Brink: The Impact of HIV/AIDS on Girls and Women in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
AIDS Coalition co-founder Sarika Agrawal (MSB ‘06) spoke optimistically of the impact young people today can have on helping the global AIDS problem.
“The AIDS pandemic is our issue,” she said. “It is what’s going to define us as a generation. Our decisions are going to be how we are remembered.”
