Keep your faith alive

I whine and whine about having an irritating nose leak and my body aches every now and then. While children in Africa are having AIDS.

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Two-thirds of all people living with HIV are found in sub-Saharan Africa, although this region contains little more than 10% of the world’s population. AIDS has caused immense human suffering in the continent. The most obvious effect of this crisis has been illness and death, but the impact of the epidemic has certainly not been confined to the health sector; households, schools, workplaces and economies have also been badly affected.

During 2007 alone, an estimated 1.5 million adults and children died as a result of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. Since the beginning of the epidemic more than 15 million Africans have died from AIDS.


The Impact on Households

The toll of HIV and AIDS on households can be very severe. Although no part of the population is unaffected by HIV, it is often the poorest sectors of society that are most vulnerable to the epidemic and for whom the consequences are most severe. In many cases, the presence of AIDS causes the household to dissolve, as parents die and children are sent to relatives for care and upbringing. A study in rural South Africa suggested that households in which an adult had died from AIDS were four times more likely to dissolve than those in which no deaths had occurred.



The Impact on Children

It is hard to over emphasise the trauma and hardship that children affected by HIV and AIDS are forced to bear. The epidemic not only causes children to lose their parents or guardians, but sometimes their childhood as well.

As parents and family members become ill, children take on more responsibility to earn an income, produce food and care for family members. It is harder for these children to access adequate nutrition,basic health care, housing and clothing. Fewer families have the money to send their children to school.

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Just a quick story:

I was a very inconsiderate girl. Seriously. When people approached me and start talking about poverty,AIDS and all, I would be like,"Oh Gosh. Poor things!". That's about the most I would offer to those people who are in need. Just my sympathy. I was more like the,"there are so many people around the world. What difference would I make?" type of person.

Then I thought. What if the percentage of people who possesses the same attitude as I did was higher than the people who had dedicated their time reaching out to others for help and the ones who are doing charity work and traveling to different places everyday not worrying they'll get infected by some disease JUST to help those under privileged ones

My mum. Is one of those people who tries her best to help those who are in need. She visited a stroke centre once. She even got a T-Shirt for helping one of them patients (: She came home and told me about it and it changed my perspective of helping those who really needs a hand.


Just think about. You can make a difference too (: