Add your voice to the Starbucks Love Project, a worldwide singing event in support of the fight against HIV AIDS in Africa.
The website also allows you to create a Love drawing and add it to their Love gallery. For every submission, Starbucks and (RED) will contribute 5cents towards the Global Fund to help fight AIDS in Africa.
RT @aidsaction: Have you seen the banner on #Boston City Hall about #HIV and #aging? Get resources on this topic at http://bit.ly/5HBPtM #AIDS
Somehow appropriate for World AIDS Day, if somewhat belated, and something to think about. From Russell Moore, Dean of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, via crosswalk.com:
Some of you are angered by the statement I typed above because you think somehow it implicates Jesus. After all, AIDS is a shameful disease, one most often spread through sexual promiscuity or illicit drug use.
Yes.
Yes, but those are the very kinds of people Jesus consistently identified himself with as he walked the hillsides of Galilee and the streets of Jerusalem, announcing the kingdom of God. Can one be more sexually promiscuous than the prostitutes Jesus ate with? Can one be more marginalized from society than a woman dripping with blood, blood that would have made anyone who touched her unclean (Luke 8:40-48)? Jesus touched her, and took her uncleanness on himself.
AIDS is scandalous, sure. But not nearly as scandalous as a cross.
(3BLMedia/theCSRfeed) Carbondale, CO - December 2, 2009 - Community service is a core value and has been a way of life at CRMS since its inception in 1953. John Holden said, “It is my firm belief that the happiest people in the world are those who serve their fellow man.” Our students have always been compelled and encouraged to go beyond the robust academic and active offerings, and to become productive, engaged members of our society. One such opportunity to contribute in a greater and meaningful way is through our student clubs. On a daily basis, CRMS students, despite their hectic school schedules, are reaching out and helping those less fortunate or simply in need of assistance. From Operation Smile and Face AIDS to Soles 4 Souls and Random Acts of Kindness, CRMS student-initiated clubs and efforts are raising funds and awareness in our community and beyond. Most recently there has been a tremendous amount of student interest in global humanitarian causes, and our clubs reflects this social awareness.
OPERATION SMILE
Two years ago, seniors Olivia Mertz and Mima Strong began an Operation Smile fundraising chapter on the CRMS campus. Operation Smile is a global organization that provides free surgeries to cleft-palate children around the world. Since its inception in 1982, Operation Smile has given over 135,000 children a new chance at life by providing them with safe, effective reconstructive surgery to correct their facial deformities. Utilizing All School Meetings as a platform to raise awareness surrounding this organization and bake sales as their key fundraising mechanism, their club enjoys 11 student members, has raised over $2,200, and has funded eight cleft-palate surgeries.
FACE AIDS
Last year, junior Katie Grant was inspired by a passage she read in her sophomore history class from Mountains Beyond Mountains, which chronicled Dr. Paul Farmer’s decades of service in Haiti and Africa treating patients with tuberculosis and AIDS. After much research and thought over the summer, Katie discovered Face AIDS, a student-based organization dedicated to mobilizing and inspiring students to fight AIDS in Africa, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to Dr. Farmers non-profit organization, Partners In Health (PIH). Since 2005, Face AIDS has raised over $1.4 million for PIH to fight AIDS in Africa via their income generating projects with HIV associations in Rwanda.
Katie debuted the new CRMS Face AIDS chapter at the beginning of this school year, and recently gave an inspiring all-school presentation encouraging our community with the following advice, “Sometimes what stirs your passion doesn’t have a pre-existing structure. Sometimes you have to be the one to begin. When you find a cause that touches you, it becomes easy to dedicate yourself to it.” She finished her presentation with the following advice, “With the coming holiday season, and a seemingly endless supply of food and gifts, it can become easy to forget how fortunate we are. This can be a time when we take our good fortune for granted, or we can use the holiday spirit to appreciate what we have, and to share it with others.” To-date the CRMS Face AIDS chapter has raised over $500 and recruited 23 members.
SOULS 4 SOLES
This past summer, juniors Kesley Bohanon and J.J. Worley decided to help needy people around the world by collecting 500 pairs of shoes for the Souls 4 Soles organization, which ships shoes to villages in third-world countries where people cannot afford to shoes. Kelsey and J.J. were drawn to the project because the donations didn’t involve cash, but rather discarded shoes. Thanks to the Aspen Skiing Company, which paid to cover the shipping costs to the distribution center, the project was a big success and involved the CRMS community and beyond.
RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS (RAK)
The newest club to debut at CRMS is RAK, a national non-profit created as a resource for people committed to spreading kindness. Senior Grady Lenkin learned about RAK while visiting a college campus. Upon further research he decided it was exactly the type of club he would like to initiate at CRMS. The entire premise is to simply ask “how can I help” and to keep that question at the forefront of your mind as you move through the day. By encouraging members to reach out and make a small difference each day, an entire community can be uplifted. While Grady would like to see the club continue after he graduates, he is grateful for all that CRMS has given him and is excited about an opportunity to give something back. In typical CRMS style, upon introducing his new club at an All School Meeting a few weeks ago, 47 students and 14 faculty/staff members signed up on the spot. With over a third of CRMS spreading Random Acts of Kindness, the groundswell movement is well underway. For more information contact lraleigh@crms.org
More people are H.I.V. positive here than in any other nation, and Mr. Zuma called on South Africans to struggle against AIDS as they had against apartheid. “We have no choice but to deploy every effort, mobilize every resource, and utilize every skill our nation possesses,” he said.
Big News on World AIDS Day out of South Africa!
Hmm...kecenderungan untuk bunuh diri ternyata lebih tinggi terjadi pada laki2 usia di bawah 34 tahun.
Taken from ReadWriteWeb by Jolie O'Dell
December 1 marks World AIDS Day, and every major social site around the Internet has come together to spread awareness about the disease, its transmission and available treatments.
Thanks to efforts from Facebook, Google, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube, AIDS is a more visible topic today than perhaps at any other point in the history of World AIDS Day. Read on to see what each site has done and the impact this joint campaign is having on users.
In partnership with the singer's foundation, Keep a Child Alive, YouTube is live streaming an Alicia Keys concert starting at 8 p.m. Eastern/5 p.m. Pacific. The site is also asking suers to donate $5 toward medication and other support for these sufferers.
The site is also hosting and promoting this video about the Lazarus Effect, the seemingly miraculous results seen in HIV/AIDS patients given two pills of a specific medication - pills that are available at just 40 cents a day:
In a blog post and a group dedicated to those living with HIV/AIDS, Flickr asked its community of users to print a PDF emblazoned with the words 'Facing AIDS' and incorporate it in a photograph to share with the world as part of an initiative with AIDS.gov.
Both Facebook and Google have announced they're working with (RED), a brand that helps raise awareness and money for the fight against AIDS in Africa.
Google set up a page just for today's events for users to learn more about the global effort to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, to find volunteer opportunities in their area, to get involved with the ONE Campaign, to purchase (RED) products as holiday gifts and to unite with others at the Global Network of People Living with HIV.
Facebook asked users to change their profile pictures to (RED)-themed avatars, shop for (RED) products and join the (RED) Facebook page.
And Twitter, our generation's megaphone, encouraged users to tweet certain terms, @usernames and hashtags, which would turn tweets red and have certain outcomes. For example, for tweets containing #red, @joinred, 40 cents, AIDS, World AIDS Day, HIV and #laceupsavelives would change the color of the text and help raise awareness with users across the site.At press time, AIDS, HIV and World AIDS Day were all trending topics on Twitter.
The site is also offering a red profile theme. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wrote that the site would be partnering with (PRODUCT)RED to raise funds, and 100 percent of funds raised would be used to help AIDS sufferers in Africa.Ellis wrote of the (RED) campaign, 'In three year... people's choices have resulted in $140 million being contributed to the Global Fund, with 100 percent of that money going directly to helping fight AIDS in Africa. Millions of people like you together have created this impact.
On "World AIDS Day", I just want to commend the work that so many people and organizations do to help on this issue. Here's a great example of community based action in Nambia from the UNDP. Here's the article from the UNDP website:
 |
| Community conversations have proven to be an effective way to combat HIV/AIDS in Namibia (photo: UNDP Namibia) |
Katima Mulilo, Namibia – What causes people to have more than one sexual partner at a time? “Sexual desire and satisfaction”; “It is a cultural and social norm”; “Poverty and hunger; it’s a way to survive.” These are just some of the perspectives that came out when communities under four traditional authorities from the Caprivi region, in the Northeast of Namibia, came together to talk about what is known as “multiple and concurrent partnerships”.
 |
| Community members working with condoms during a community conversation on MCP in Katima Mulilo, Caprivi region. Photo @ UNDP Namibia (Photo: UNDP Namibia) |
“Long ago, marriages were respected. Nowadays, we have left this culture behind and both men and women have multiple sexual partners”, said one participant. Multiple and concurrent partnerships have been identified as one of the main reasons why HIV has spread so rapidly in Namibia. According to data from the latest Namibia Demographic and Health Survey of 2006-07, 16 percent of sexually active men and 3 percent of sexually active women said they had more than one partner over the previous 12 months in 2006. “By bringing together men, women and all those affected by HIV and AIDS, this approach gives people the opportunity to make their voices heard, to identify their needs and to be counted when decisions about HIV and AIDS interventions are made,” says the Manager of UNDP’s Community Capacity Enhancement Programme, Immanuel Mwilima. Community Capacity Enhancement through Community Conversations is a tried and tested methodology to boost the capacity of communities to identify concerns, deliberate on solutions and map out courses of action around HIV and AIDS. The approach opens up spaces for discussions based on relationships of trust and mutual respect.
To date, communities in 9 regions are conducting community conversations, with impressive results. In the Caprivi region, traditional leaders have lead by example, going for voluntary counselling and testing and breaking the stigma associated with testing. In the words of one leader: “It is shocking that many of our relatives and loved ones have died because of HIV and AIDS. Some of them passed away when they were still searching for Anti-Retroviral Treatments. If this programme had come sooner, our relatives would have been alive today.” Many challenges still remain in the fight against HIV and AIDS, however. For instance, 17.8% of pregnant women are HIV-positive. “One of the biggest challenges facing rural communities in relation to accessing treatment, care and support services is stigma, discrimination, cultural norms and practices. Community Capacity Enhancement gives communities an opportunity to have an introspection of their cultural practices, norms and values,” says Lebogang Motlana, the Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP in Namibia. While Namibia is among the five countries most affected by HIV around the world, the epidemic is now demonstrating a downward trend after peaking at 22% in 2002.
