While I was thinking about what to write about for my blog I remember something that I had done recently. Sometime in the past few months, there was an event at my church that I attended. It was called the AIDS Experience and was presented by World Vision. It was an awesome experience. They would give you a headset that told a story as you walked through the exhibit. It put you in the perspective of a child who was affected by HIV/AIDS and lived in a developing country. Personally, I got a child who lived in Kenya. He lived off of the AIDS Highway, so the disease had a large impact on his life. Eventually, his mom became sick and died from the "big disease" (that is what they called it in Kenya). Years later, after being shunned by friends because they assumed he had the disease because his mom had it, he discovered that he was HIV positive. It was a very powerful experience. It was very humbling to look at the disease from the perspective of an innocent child. It was very heart wrenching to imagine the pain he must of experienced. He lost his mother and was shunned by society all at once. To top it off, he was then diagnosed with HIV years later. I know if that happened to me I would experience despair like I cannot imagine. HIV/AIDS is impacting the world in ways we cannot even fathom.
I have added a video that advertises the AIDS Experience, and also a link that has a little more information about the exhibit. I remember that I walked through the Kombo track.
http://www.worldvisionexperience.org/
Did You Know?
This week I have decided to follow the theme that I began with the first part of the blog. I am going to look at how HIV/AIDS has affected Kenya. It did not take me long to discover that HIV/AIDS is literally wreaking havok in Kenya. There are approximately 1.5 million people living with it, and around 1.2 million kids have been orphaned by the disease. The HIV prevalence rate peaked in 2000 but has dropped drastically. One of the reasons for the drop is the high death rates. To me that was very shocking. Thus far, when I have been conducting research for HIV/AIDS I have never seen the HIV prevalence rate drop because of high death rates. It is awful.
Bibliography:
HIV and AIDS in kenya. (2011). Retrieved February 2, 2011, from http://www.avert.org/hiv-aids-kenya.htm
That sounds like an awesome way to learn about this disease, by actually seeing it as if you were right there with that child. All we seem to do is pretty much learn the medical terminology and medical side of HIV/AIDS, even with the simulations we are doing. So to see and hear about an actual individual non medical science involved sounds interesting. I wish we had field trips in this class and have the option to actually see what it is like for an individual face to face with this disease and learn through what they experienced. I totally agree with you about that poor little boy who was shunned by his family and friends then found out he had HIV, that is terrible.
ReplyDeleteMilinda Degnon
Awesome video goes very well with your topic. Its unbelieveable to think about 1.5 million people in Kenya living with a terminal illness such as this. All the research has been a shock to me as well.
ReplyDeleteRandall Usher
It startles me to see such a large number of children in Kenya are living with HIV/AIDS. I would think because of poverty and lack of medicine and resources. Even with that being the case, it is still shocking that children are the main cases of HIV/AIDS and being orphaned. It is good news to hear that the HIV prevalence rate has dropped in 2000, and I hope it continues to drop as the years go by!
ReplyDeleteYou can go on their website and take the same journey on the computer that you took in person. Linda and I both attended the exhibit and I thought it was well done.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with HIV orphans in Africa is that they don't get the same educational experience that other children do. You must have a school uniform to attend school in Africa, so without parents that becomes almost impossible. So the deaths to HIV continue to impact the population because children without an education will never succeed in a country with the poverty levels they experience. HIV actually robs them twice.