Her name is Nicole. She is a talented painter, an avid swimmer and loves watching horror movies with her friends. But, now, she is just known as “that girl with AIDS.”
Her friends won’t come over to her apartment anymore, and when she goes to theirs, there is a sheet setup on the floor for her to sit on. Her boyfriend stopped kissing her. Then, he stopped touching her, and now, he has just stopped calling her.
She is too weak to swim anymore, and now she spends her time taking pill after pill after pill, which just make her nauseous and tired. She is too weak to fight this disease alone, but everyone in her life has given up on her and her fight.
Now, imagine a day that brought together the whole world to fight alongside Nicole. While she fought in the hospital, the world would fight in the streets to end the prejudice.
The world would fight in the laboratories to find a cure. The world would fight in the schools to educate.
Tomorrow, World AIDS Day will do just this. It will rally our student body to fight alongside the rest of the world for those victims who have to fight every day of their lives.
Tomorrow, students from all races, religions and backgrounds will unite together and march from all corners of the campus to arrive in Bruin Plaza.
“By continuing to spread awareness, World AIDS Day serves as a way to breakdown the prejudices that have been formed toward HIV and AIDS sufferers,” said Dance Marathon Public Relations Director Taylor Wirth.
Although many people believe that the AIDS problem has been solved, this is far from true.
According to the UNAIDS, the joint United Nations program on AIDS, there are currently 33.2 million people who are HIV positive, including 2.5 million pediatric cases.
More striking for our demographic, around 50 percent of people are infected with HIV before they are 25 and die from AIDS before they are 35.
World AIDS Day will be a day of education, a time when students will learn what they can do to help in this fight. There are several ways to aid the progress of this ongoing battle.
Just $8 can be used to donate a shot of nevirapine, a drug that greatly reduces the chance of a mother transmitting HIV to her child during birth.
Another way to continue our support is to sign up for Dance Marathon, which will have a large presence at World AIDS Day.
Last year, Dance Marathon raised over $330,000 for pediatric AIDS foundations, which made it the largest student-run philanthropic event on the West Coast.
“Dance Marathon is a way in which students can make an actual difference in the lives of AIDS victims and also save many young children from ever contracting the disease at all,” said Wirth.
Now is the time for you to decide how you want to respond to this global crisis.
Do you want to stand idly by as this pandemic takes the lives of those around us? Or do you want to join in the fight?
Come to Bruin Plaza tomorrow and show your support. Show the rest of the student body that you will not succumb to prejudice or segregation of AIDS victims.
Fight for Nicole. Fight for the baby who comes into this world too sick to survive.
Fight for your friend who is too scared to tell you, and fight for those who just can’t fight anymore.
Levi is a member of Dance Marathon’s public relations committee. She is a fourth-year communication studies student.