World AIDS Day

Every year on the 1st of December since 1988, World AIDS Day is celebrated. According to current UNAIDS estimates, there are now approximately 33.4 million people living with the virus. In 2008, around 2.7 million people became newly infected. There are now drugs that keep HIV infected people alive, living a normal life, reaching their full life expenctancy. However in developing countries, less than half of the people needing these life saving drugs receive them. I've read some estimates that only 1 in 20 children in these countries receive the drugs. This is largely due to stigma. Most parents don't want to admit their children are infected. What will the neighbors say when they are taking all that medicine? What will people think? I might lose my job. I will lose my family and friends. I live in a country where every person knows someone who is living with the disease and many that have died because of it. It has become a part of life. It's a part of life that I don't much like. I'm tired of seeing people die needlessly. I'm tired of hearing of women infected by their husbands (which by the way is the largest percentage of new infections in Uganda). I tired of seeing innocent children suffer because of being unknowingly infected. I'm tired of watching a generation of young people lose their parents early and struggle to survive. It's a disease that has changed my life. It's impacted me in ways I never thought it could. Although, I'm not infected, I live by an alarm for medicine for Jackie. Nakato, a child that was living with me that died from the disease. I've watched my friends die. I've looked after them when they were sick. And all the time I wonder: Why? Why can't they find a cure? Why can't they find better medicines? Why can't we make better choices? Why? Why? Why? Almost every child in my sponsorship program has been impacted by the disease. Some have lost both parents. Others are taking care of one surviving parent. Others have a sister or brother that is infected. Some are themselves infected. There is no child here that can't give you a list of names of people they know that have died of AIDS. Suzan is one of my kids. She's quiet, humble, hard working, and respectful. Her and her brother George are in my sponsorship program. Today was my first time to really hear their story. Like I said, a lot of stigma and shame still here. They finally told me that their dad died of AIDS and there mom is dying of it. They told me how things were hard at home. Their mom can't work because of being sick frequently so their older brother is the one to look for food, rent, etc. George is beginning high school next year and wants to be a doctor. Suzan will be taking entrance exams for a new school this year and hopefully will be in her final year of primary school. These are just two of my kids' stories. I could tell you many more. Each one has one has a story and for most it all goes back to AIDS.