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|
| Living
Through HIV/AIDS
February 28, 2002 |
| Quotable Quotes | |
| "We
have conservatives on the right, liberals on the left, and in the middle
are 40 million people living with AIDS.”
-
Franklin Graham,
President Samaritans Purse |
|
| “God
has blinded the government because He wants the saints to look after the
AIDS problem.”
-
South African Geroge Snayman,
Masoyi Home-Based Orphan Care Program |
|
| “HIV/AIDS
in sub-Saharan Africa is a plague of genocidal proportions. No other
calamity since the slave trade has depopulated Africa as AIDS has...The
economic, social and spiritual consequences cannot be over-emphasized.
The churches in Africa consider HIV/AIDS to constitute the biggest challenge
to their mission and calling of promoting life with dignity in sustainable
communities.”
-
Rev. Dr. Sam Kobia, director of the
WCC Issues and Themes Cluster |
|
| “...the
Chief of the UN agency on AIDS says the world has seen only the beginning
of the epidemic.”
-
cbc.ca,
June 5, 2001
|
|
| “Twenty
years into the epidemic, millions of young people still know little if
anything about the epidemic. In some countries, many have never even
heard of AIDS and those who have hold serious misconceptions about how
HIV is transmitted.”
-
“AIDS epidemic update 2001",
UNAIDS/WHO press release, November 28, 2001 |
|
| “...the
disease is also associated with stigma, ostracism, repression and discrimination,
as individuals affected (or believed to be affected) by HIV have been rejected
by their families, their loved ones and their communities.”
-
UNAIDS research studies from Uganda and India
|
|
| “The
end product of HIV/AIDS is sickness, poverty, children without parents,
and death. It is not for us to judge and to condemn. Jesus
came into the world not to condemn but to save. Ours is to reach
out to a world that is hurting and demonstrate the compassion of our Lord
Jesus.”
-
Janet Museveni, First Lady of Uganda
|
|
| “In
sub-Sahara Africa, whole generations are basically disappearing.
That is going to give rise to substantial disruptions in social interactions
and economic structures. Societies can only deal with a certain amount
of disruption before they collapse.”
-
Dr. Mark Feinberg, Emory University School
of Medicine and AIDS researcher |
|
| “Ignorance
about the epidemic remains pervasive among young people, many of whom do
not know how to protect themselves from HIV.”
-
UNAIDS publication, “Children and young
people in a world of AIDS”, August 2001 |
|
| “AIDS
has raised its death knell with a combination of elements enough for those
on opposite sides of this issue to find reasons to sustain their unbending
dispositions. Those who merely stand on the sidelines and watch its
ravages seem to find enough rationalization to distract from the responsibility
of the Christian message to reach and help in a malady so painful.”
-
Ravi Zacharias,
Christian Writer and Radio Host |
|
| “If
there were a foreign army camped out on our border that we knew was going
to kill 25 million people, we’d do something about it.”
-
Dr. Colin Eistenstein,
medical director of Anglo Gold, South Africa’s biggest gold-mining company |
|
| “Any
time we assign moral blame on anyone for a grief experienced, we not only
play God, but we end up doing so in an ungodly way.”
-
Ravi Zacharias,
Christian Writer and Radio Host |
|
| “AIDS
is not only a physical problem for medical personnel to handle, but also
a spiritual and social issue with which the church, her leaders and members
must be involved.”
-
Dr. Paul Wangai,
Medical Director, New Life Home for HIV babies |
|
| “As
Christians, I believe that if Jesus Christ were here today, we would find
Him showing love, compassion, and His healing power to those infected by
this horrible disease (of AIDS). Unfortunately, much of the world,
including the church, has turned their heads, hearts and hands away from
them.”
-
Franklin Graham,
President of the Christian Aid Organization Samaritan’s Purse |
|
| “Today
the statistics of what has happened in the world of AIDS is staggering.
If any one of us were to pause and reflect on the numbers, the horror,
the pain, the grief, the desolation, our indictment would be unbearable.
We must pause and commit to making a positive difference in our world that
includes AIDS in a way that the world will see our good works and glorify
our Father who is in heaven.”
-
Ravi Zacharias,
Christian Writer and Radio Host |
|
| Agape is defined as ‘love as revealed in Jesus, seen as spiritual and selfless and a model for humanity.’ | |
| “And
whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.”
-
The Holy Bible, Matthew 18:5
|
|
| Factoids | |
| There
are 9,100 gay men living with HIV in Toronto, and only three-quarters of
them know they are infected.
-
study led by Dr. Liviana Calzavara,
HIV studies unit at the University of Toronto |
|
| Since
the HIV epidemic began, more than 60 million people have been infected
with the virus. HIV/AIDS is now the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan
Africa. Worldwide, it is the fourth biggest killer.
-
UNAIDS, “Aids Epidemic Update”,
December 2001 |
|
| “In
Canada, Health Canada estimates show that at the end of 1999, there were
49,800 people living with HIV infection (including those living with AIDS),
and increase of 24 per cent since 1996, that is, approximately 4,200 new
infections per year.”
-
Health Canada web-page
|
|
| “At
the end of 2001, an estimated 40 million people globally were living with
HIV”
-
UNAIDS
|
|
| “In
many parts of the developing world, the majority of new infections occurred
in young adults, with young women especially vulnerable. About one
third of those currently living with HIV/AIDS are aged 15-24. Most
of them do not know they carry the virus. Many millions more know
nothing or too little about HIV to protect themselves against it.”
-
UNAIDS, December 2001
|
|
| Health
officials in Russia warn that unless more is done to control the country’s
exploding rate of HIV infection, Russia will face the same loss of life
as many African nations. Canada AIDS Russia project manager
Vinay Saldanha said 90% of the cases are intravenous drug users, and most
of them are under 30. Officially, 18,000 Russians are HIV-positive,
but health experts say the real number is close to a million. About
2,000 new cases are diagnosed every week in Russia.
-
cbc.ca,
February 28, 2002
|
|
| Since
the epidemic began, over 18 million lives have been claimed by AIDS - almost
15 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Around 5 million new infections
occur annually.
-
UNAIDS fact sheet - Aids and Population
|
|
| The
number of HIV infections in Eastern Europe is rising faster than anywhere
else in the world, a 15-fold increase in just three years.
-
“AIDS epidemic update 2001",
UNAIDS/WHO press release, November 28, 2001 |
|
| 11.7
million children and young people live with HIV/AIDS. Over 7,000
new infections daily are occurring among young people.
-
UNAIDS publication, “Children and young
people in a world of AIDS”, August 2001 |
|
| Sub-Saharan
Africa is hardest hit. It is home to over 70% of young people living
with HIV/AIDS and to 90% of the AIDS orphans in the world (12.1 million
children)
-
UNAIDS publication, “Children and young
people in a world of AIDS”, August 2001 |
|
| AIDS
has orphaned at least 10.4 million children currently under 15. The
total number of children orphaned by the epidemic since it began - 13.2
- is forecast to more than double by 2010.
-
UNAIDS publication, “Children and young
people in a world of AIDS”, August 2001 |
|
| AIDS
related deaths caused some 2.3 million children to become orphans (at the
rate of 1 every 14 seconds) in 2000. UNICEF estimates that up to
a third of those children were less than 5 years old.
-
UNAIDS publication, “Children and young
people in a world of AIDS”, August 2001 |
|
| In
2000 alone, an estimated 600,000 infants acquired HIV - over 90% of them
through mother-to-child transmission. About 90% of those infections
occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. HIV can be transmitted to an infant
during pregnancy, labour, delivery or breastfeeding.
-
UNAIDS publication, “Children and young
people in a world of AIDS”, August 2001 |
|
| AIDS
will claim many more victims than the medieval Black Death, which killed
20 million. Africa is in denial about the disease.
-
This Day (Lagos), December 2, 2000
|
|
| About
85% of the teachers who died during the past few years in the Central African
Republic were HIV positive. In Zambia, educated women past their
teens are three times more likely to contract HIV than uneducated ones.
-
This Day (Lagos), December 2, 2000
|
|
| AIDS
is the number one cause of death for African-Americans aged 25-44.
-
National Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention |
|
| Globally,
it is estimated that only approximately 15% of the actual cumulative AIDS
cases have been reported.
-
WHO Weekly epidemiological record
|
|
| In
the Ivory Coast, ‘a growing number of primary and secondary school teachers
have since 1998 contracted the virus causing AIDS, which according to a
local medical study, is killing 8 teachers a week.
-
World Alliance of YMCAs, March 2001
|
|
| Typically,
half of all those with HIV become infected before they celebrate their
25th birthday and many of them die from AIDS before they turn 35, leaving
behind a generation of children to be raised by grandparents or siblings.
-
“Children and young people in a world of AIDS”,
UNAIDS, August 2001 |
|
| “If
the U.S. had a similar proportion of infections, there would be 50 million
infected people. In Botswana, as many infected in four days as are
infected in one year in the United States.”
-
Richard Keenlyside,
U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) |
|
| To
Help/For More Information:
If you would like to help the Rideouts in their ministry to abandoned babies and children with AIDS, or if you would like more information about their ministry, please write to their Canadian branch at: The Agape Home Network
Canada
or email Roy and Avis at agape@loxinfo.co.th |
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