December 1st was World AIDS Day. Ashamed, I admit I had not known this awareness day existed in all of my years growing up in Hawaii, and though I came to acknowledged it in college, I did little more. Truth be told I was always in my own little world and HIV was not invited to join my party. Only 1% in the U.S. is infected with HIV- a very small number of people, so small people don't think about it- but it all changed from the moment I stepped off the plane into a country where HIV is screaming to be heard in its hopes to find a cure. Naturally, I took this day to heart. I was excited to see what the country with the world's highest prevalence of HIV (aka Swaziland) would do to bring awareness, help, and support for its' people. A large event is hosted in the King's Kraal, and every year the location changes to a different region. There are 4 regions within Swaziland: the HhoHho, Lubombo, Manzini, and Shiselweni and this year the event was in the HhoHho Region. My region! The event started with a walk (which I did walk just not with the group and an hour or two after it took place. I've got great timing I know!), and proceeded with the days events which included speakers, performances from singers, drama groups and a testing site and information from NGOs and other organizations. While it was great seeing people excited and supporting this day and what it stands for, I became very downhearted. There were a couple hundred people present when there should have been a couple thousand, there were mostly adults but there should have been a higher presence of youth, and most importantly I wish the King had come. He is the biggest role model for this country and his arrival would no doubt have improved the attendance numbers... While it was a good event, and I'm glad to have experienced it, it got me thinking about this day the world has chosen to observe. Oddly enough, everyday is AIDS day in Africa. The reason I say Africa in particular is that according to World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS in 2008, it was estimated that out of the 33.2 million people worldwide who are living with HIV, 22.4 million people live in Sub-Saharan Africa. While it's good that everyone worldwide "thinks" about this problem, it's hard to "celebrate" this day when there's no cure. And so, with a hope that one day a cure might be found- I hope that others just as naive as I was, know that World AIDS Day does exist and not just on December 1st, but every day of every year for people ALL around the world from America to Africa.
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