16 November 2005
As 39.4 million people live with HIV and 3.1 million die each year from AIDS, HIV/AIDS continues to expand, making this year's World AIDS Day hold a significance beyond mere remembrance in the form of a call to "Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise". As Executive Director of UNAIDS Peter Piot writes, "On current trends, AIDS will kill tens of millions of people over the next 20 years. But this need not happen. We know prevention works. We know that HIV treatment and care work. The global AIDS response is poised to enter a new era: where leadership and commitment are at long last matched with the resources needed to get on with the job. Investment in AIDS will be repaid a thousand-fold in lives saved and communities held together."
Created 17 years ago in 1988 by the World Health Organization and UNAIDS , World AIDS Day was an idea to ensure the world would remember and educate, draw attention and incite people to act around HIV/AIDS for a day. Throughout the years, World AIDS Day has challenged peoples and nations on specific issues related to HIV/AIDS, some of the most recent include: a focus on the impact of HIV/AIDS on women, the stigma people with HIV/AIDS face, the discrimination present in society towards people living with HIV/AIDS. This day has steadily become one of the most successful, world-wide commemorative days.
This year on 1 December 2005, the World AIDS Campaign challenges everyone to move beyond education and commemoration to active engagement with the promises made towards people living with HIV/AIDS and towards ending the epidemic before it affects new lives. Their slogan, "Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise." is a year of remembering the promises made in the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS . Many organisations specialize in working with people to prevent, educate, and provide treatment. While these organisations have done so much to help, the epidemic is still spreading. Only through individual awareness and action can the epidemic end.
On 1 December 2005, World AIDS Day is a chance to renew our promises to end HIV/AIDS through activism for the poor, respecting, including and valuing people living with HIV/AIDS, and challenging ourselves to not become comfortable with hearing about HIV/AIDS but start to make and keep promises to end it.
In Geneva, many organizations are joining together to host events all over the city including: a Shona art exhibit, documentaries on living with AIDS, a prayer service at the World Council of Churches, and a "Keep the Promise" program for the UN-NGO community at World Council of Churches including a commemoration program, a candlelight ceremony, exhibition and parade. The details can be seen here
The World AIDS Campaign has compiled a list of events occurring on World AIDS Day 1 December 2005. If you are trying to join something in your area, go here to find what's happening in your country!
