AIDS week events promote awareness

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention in 2006 estimated 56,300 Americans are infected with HIV every year and 21 percent of those infected are unaware.

AIDS Now Grasps Every Living Soul, or A.N.G.E.L.S., teamed up with Pride Alliance to spread awareness of how HIV and AIDS are affecting everyone on a local and global scale.

AIDS Awareness Week is a local event on campus usually held in February. This year the two organizations held an event every night from Feb. 7-11.

Information tables at the fountain area and Herty Hall were stacked everyday with free condoms, brochures about HIV and AIDS and red ribbons.

The kickoff event occurred Feb. 7 when participants hung flags on Front Campus to represent the countries dealing with the AIDS epidemic. The flags displayed the number of people infected.

On Feb. 8, “Life Support,” starring Queen Latifah, was shown. The movie is about a mother and recovering drug addict infected with HIV.

There were discussion forums held regarding religion and HIV on Feb. 9, and about HIV and homosexuality Feb. 10.

On Feb. 11, the documentary behind RENT titled “No Day But Today” was shown in honor of GCSU’s upcoming production and the musical’s involvement of AIDS awareness.

Students also passed out free condoms in front of Capital City during the Thursday nights of Feb. 4 and Feb. 11.

Jeremy Weatherly, a senior political science major, was one of the students that made the trek to Capital City to spread awareness.

“We went and handed out condoms the other night,” Weatherly said. “There’s a stigma associated with safe sex. A lot of people are very ignorant about it. Some girl said, ‘well I have birth control.’ That’s not going to prevent HIV. People think of it more as an anti-pregnancy measure when it should be anti-disease.”

Weatherly has only been a part of A.N.G.E.L.S. for two weeks, but he is doing whatever he can to help.

“I heard about (A.N.G.E.L.S.) through Dr. Robin Harris,” Weatherly said. “She’s in the sociology department. She is very passionate about it. I’m very passionate about it as well.”

Weatherly feels that awareness of the issue is important and should be seen as a bigger deal.

“We want to talk about swine flu like it’s a pandemic,” Weatherly said. “No, AIDS is a pandemic. Just because it’s not in the United States doesn’t mean it’s not an issue. It’s in the United States more than anybody would believe.”

April Abbott, a senior mathematics major, is the president of A.N.G.E.L.S. and has been an active participant for a year.

“I took the Sociology of HIV/AIDS last year with Dr. Harris,” Abbott said. “You have to do 15 community service hours to be in the class. I just got involved and they asked who wants to be president next year and I said, ‘I’ll do it.’ ”

As a member of both A.N.G.E.L.S. and Pride Alliance, Abbott is glad that the two groups were able to collaborate.

“We always try to get together, but something usually happens or another,” Abbott said. “This year we really got together. We’re also big with BSA – Black Student Alliance – because HIV affects the African American community severely.”

While she does not personally know anybody affected by AIDS, Abbott has seen the damage that it can cause.

“ANGELS goes to the Diversity House in Macon,” Abbott said. “That’s a place where people (go who) would be practically homeless because they have HIV. They don’t have anywhere to go. They don’t have any money. It’s a place where they live. I’ve seen them and how it affects them.”

AIDS Awareness Week was open to all students who wished to participate, whether it was for an organization or themselves.

Britta Gervais, a sophomore art major, is not an official member of either sponsoring organization, but found out about the week of events through Facebook.

“I’m on the Facebook group for the Pride Alliance although usually I can’t make it to the meetings,” Gervais said. “This is the first time I’ve had time to go out and do it because of studies and other groups I’m associated with. I’m really excited to participate in any events that I can.”

Kaley Boyles, a sophomore early childhood education major, wanted to help out after receiving Facebook invites and hearing about the events from a friend.

“I’m just getting involved around campus and this seemed like a good way to do it,” Boyles said.

Posted by Courtney Murrah on Feb 12 2010. 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