Meaningful Volunteer is marking the day and raising awareness by helping to organize Rubber Soul. Rubber Soul is a chilling, swaying, rocking and foot-stomping international concert series for World AIDS Day.
Money raised by Rubber Soul will go towards a solar powered school in Buyaya, Eastern Uganda.
According to the United Nation's Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, there are some promising signs with the fight against the disease. The number of new infections has been declining since the late 1990s to reach the current level of 2.6 million. AIDS related deaths have decreased 19% from 2004 to 2009: 1.8 million died in 2009.
On the flip side though, 2.6 million people were infected in 2009! 1.8 million people died in 2009!
So, while we are making progress, it is still a massive problem.
So, what is Meaningful Volunteer doing about it? Nada.
We have looked at doing HIV programs for a long time now, but whenever we start looking into it, the problem gets harder and harder.
Here's an example of just how hard the issue can be.
At a guess, the HIV rate in Buyaya is 40%. We haven't done any testing yet, but if it is anything like the ladies in Grassroots Uganda (who we have tested), then 40% is a good enough guess.
So what do we do about this 40%? We supply them with ARVs. ARVs are the medicine you take when you are HIV positive. A person on ARVs should be doing three things:
- Have regular contact with a doctor
If the ARV dosage is too high, then the HIV builds up an immunity too quickly. If it is too low, then the ARVs are ineffective.
- Be eating an healthy diet.
- Get regular exercise.
Number three is easy in Buyaya as the ladies spend much of their day collecting firewood and water, farming, and taking care of children.
Number one is hard. Just transporting the ladies to a qualified doctor is a logistical nightmare.
Number two is nigh on impossible within Meaningful Volunteer's budget and expertise, because it would require solving the problem of lack of healthy food in Buyaya. A massive problem in itself!
It just gets depressing when we try to attack the problem of HIV in Buyaya in a holistic way.
We may start an HIV education campaign in Buyaya soon. Our first step would be to get the locals back to a zero level of HIV education by removing misconceptions. Did you know, for example, that condoms increase your chances of getting cancer? Or that people in Europe actually inject the virus into condoms?
Yes, we have such a limited understanding of what it takes to implement change in a country without the infrastructure we take for granted in the U.S. Our desire to 'do good' is handicapped when we don't understand the whole problem.
ReplyDeleteYup. Also true for Canada, where I live, and New Zealand, where I was born.
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