Awareness is best way to fight AIDS

     To create awareness for AIDS and Personal Health Awareness Week, the campus A.N.G.E.L.S. (AIDS Now Grasps Every Living Soul) members handed out free baked goods, informational brochures and condoms on Front Campus from Feb. 12-16.
     In honor of GCSU’s 11th Annual AIDS Awareness Week, over 11 events offered students information and entertainment to help spread the knowledge of HIV/AIDS prevention. The campus A.N.G.E.L.S foundation, in cooperation with the Women’s Resource Center, P.A.W.S., and other campus-affiliated associations, organized the activities.
      President of the campus A.N.G.E.L.S. Tameka Dean, a biology and pre-med major, fell in love with the cause two years ago.
     “AIDS awareness is not limited to be safe or don’t have sex,” Dean said.  “People need to be more compassionate. It may not be you [that is infected], but it could be your friend. That’s the problem; people disconnect themselves from the issue.”
Dean has not been personally affected by the AIDS/HIV epidemic, but wants to advise people to not separate themselves from the issue and become unaware of the effects. It has been estimated that at least half of all new HIV infections in the United States are among people under 25 years old. At the end of 2002, Georgia was ranked eighth in the nation with 26,008 reported AIDS cases.
     Unfortunately, Dean has experienced some negative feedback from students.
     “Some people make jokes and are rude to our members,” Dean said. “It bothers me that people are still ignorant [to this issue] in college.”
     On the other hand, Dean has experienced constant positive feedback from the GCSU faculty.
     Dr. Robin Harris, associate professor of sociology and government, is a strong supporter of the cause and most professors associated with her are very helpful, according to Dean.
     “The good feedback definitely outweighs the bad,” explains Dean as she discusses the upcoming events of AIDS Awareness Week.
     The enthusiastic campus A.N.G.E.L.S. spent all of last week hosting speakers, awareness events, information tables, abstinence programs, fundraisers and risk reduction programs. National advertising for AIDS/HIV prevention frequently focuses on AIDS and HIV in third world countries.
     However, in Georgia since 1981, approx. 30,000 people have been diagnosed with AIDS. Of the 30,000 AIDS reported cases, over half the cases ended in death, according to the Georgia AIDS Coalition’s 2006 report. Internationally, the statistics worsen and become almost unfathomable.
     Dr. Sunita Manian, coordinator of interdisciplinary studies, lead a lecture discussing the worldwide affect of AIDS/HIV titled, “Tacking HIV/AIDS in the Age of Globalization: The Case of Chennai, India.”
     In India, 25 percent of all women from 15 to 24 years old have AIDS. Dr. Manian studied in a town called Chennai and gained extensive knowledge of the national problems and beneficial programs established in India. Initially, India’s government deemed AIDS as a trait of deviant groups that the government didn’t want to help. 
     “The response to the AIDS crisis in India is inadequate in scale,” Manian said. “There are over 5.1 million people still living with HIV.”
     Though the epidemic has spread and 85 percent of AIDS/HIV is now heterosexually transmitted, the government only spends about $0.17 per infected person.
     Manian plans to return to India to study the social injustice and relevance to the AIDS epidemic. By writing a book, she plans to give the transgender population an overdue voice.
     After powerful lectures, such as Manian’s “Tackling AIDS/HIV in the Age of Globalization,” the consequences of ignorance cannot be overlooked. So, campus A.N.G.E.L.S. and other organizations hosted didactic events, such as a battle of the sexes game, a silent auction, an Art as an Agent for Change performance and an interactive “Game of Life” to bring an epidemic issue to GCSU students.
     Free Confidential HIV testing was also available on Front Campus on Feb. 13, in honor of National Testing Day.
AIDS Awareness Week was a success; more students became educated and more steps were made in the fight against HIV/AIDS. To continue the awareness and empower social change, visit www.aids.org. 

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 23 2007. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry