Last week during our Minute for Mission, Marilyn Caldwell outlined the United Church of Canada’s “Beads of Hope Campaign” and told you about today’s luncheon and “Images of Africa” slide show fundraising effort towards that campaign.

Today I am continuing with the same theme, but I will focus on the educational objective of the Beads of Hope campaign.  I’d like to share a few things that I’ve learned about HIV/AIDS, because knowledge is one of the tools to fight this problem.

Let’s start with “What is it?”  “HIV” is the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. 'Human' because only humans get it - you can't give it to animals and you can't get it from animals.  ‘Immunodeficiency’ refers to the main effect of HIV on the body; it affects the immune system.  And ‘Virus’ of course indicates that it is a virus and not a bacteria or a cancer and that it can be passed from person to person.

“AIDS” stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.  ‘Acquired’ because you have to get it - it’s not genetic. ‘Immune Deficiency’ because it attacks the immune system and weakens it to the point where infections and cancers that ordinarily wouldn’t have a chance to make you sick have the opportunity to take hold in your body.  ‘Syndrome’ because AIDS is not a disease in the medical sense - it is a syndrome, which means that it’s a collection of symptoms that points to an underlying cause of illness.  No one has ever died of AIDS itself - people die of the infections and cancers that AIDS allows to happen by weakening the immune system.

Now that we know what it is, I’m going to tell you a few facts and figures about it.  Are you ready?  Most of these figures come from a 2002 UN Report on the Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic.
• More than 20 million people have died of AIDS-related illness.
• As of 2002, 40 million people are infected with HIV.
• 5 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2001 alone.
• Two-thirds of all newly infected people with HIV are between the ages of 15 and 24.
• 6,000 more young people contract the virus every day.
• 14 million children have been orphaned because of AIDS-related deaths.  This number is forecast to more than double by 2010.

They call it a ‘pandemic.’ I looked that word up in the dictionary and it means “occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population.”  The World has HIV/AIDS.
 The UN report says the HIV/AIDS epidemic is still in its early stages ? 68 million people are projected to die because of AIDS between 2000 and 2020.  That’s 5 times more deaths than in the previous 2 decades, when we first began to learn about AIDS.

We often think of Africa when we think of AIDS.  For that is the continent where AIDS is currently most acute.  Let’s look at a few specific countries in Africa:
• South Africa is considered the AIDS capital of the world, with five million infected with HIV, followed by India with 4 million, and Nigeria with 3.5 million.
• Botswana has the highest per capita rate of infection, with 39 percent of its population infected, a country described as being “faced with extinction.”
• Zimbabwe is right behind at 37 percent, where each week 3000 people die of AIDS.

But AIDS is reaching far beyond Africa:
• In China, home to one fifth of the world’s population, HIV prevalence rose more than 67% in the first 6 months of 2001.
• India has more people living with HIV than any country other than South Africa.
• In some Caribbean countries, AIDS is now the leading cause of death.

These statistics are numbing, and difficult to comprehend.  How do make sense out of numbers of lives in the millions?  I felt hopeless as I read some of this information, and you almost wonder why you should bother doing anything about such a hopeless situation.  And if you stop thinking about it for a while, it goes away.  After all, 95% of all infections are in the global south.  But HIV/AIDS is in Canada too.  An estimated 50,000 Canadians are living with HIV/AIDS.  Here in Canada, many of those victims have access to treatment and medicine that allows them to live longer, healthier lives.  And while the rate of death in Canada has declined, the epidemic has evolved in unforeseen and alarming ways.  The most disturbing fact is simply that the virus continues to spread.  Despite evidence that Canadians generally have a good understanding of modes of HIV transmission and prevention options, about 4,200 new infections occur in Canada each year.

So where is the hope?  To try and do anything about this situation seems like a drop in a bucket.  Like one of these little beads, any effort seems so small it is easily lost and means nothing.  But the Beads of Hope is a place to start.  During the past few years, as the HIV/AIDS pandemic has become a crisis, African women have created beaded pins which people wear to express solidarity with those who suffer.  The pins have become very popular in South Africa. Well, the beads are spreading too.  The United Church of Canada has contracted women’s groups in South Africa to make these beaded pins to sell as a fund raiser.  They cost $25; $5 is cost, and $20 is a donation.  The first shipment of 5,000 Beads of Hope pins has already sold out.
• At $20 each, that’s $100,000
• A new delivery of 5,000 pins has just arrived.  That’s another $100,000.
• I have 20 of them with me today.  That’s $400 towards a solution.
• One bead at a time, these women put these pins together, because it was the only thing they could do.
• Today after church there will be a luncheon and slide show.  If 30 people come for lunch and donate $5 or $10 dollars, that’s another $150 to $300.  Just from our congregation.
• There are 3,677 United Church congregations in Canada.  If every one of those congregations did one fund raising event, and made $300, that would be $1,103,100.

HIV/AIDS affects all of us.  And as we read in first Corinthians, “If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it.”  The United Church of Canada has given us a way to help.  Please join us for lunch today.  Or if you can’t come, maybe you can buy a pin.  Or maybe you can plan an event sometime during this 2 year campaign.

Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness, stir me from placidness.
You call from tomorrow, You break ancient schemes
From the bondage of sorrow the captives dream dreams.
Our women see visions, our men clear their eyes,
With bold new decisions, Your people arise.
(Verse 4)

Return to Home Page