A week of events for World AIDS Day

As World AIDS Day nears, JMU's World AIDS Week events are underway to provide prevention education and increase student awareness of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The week's events urge students to realize the need to get tested for HIV as well as discuss the diesease's impact. According to Aimee Johnson, a graduate assistant at the University Health Center office of health promotions, students also are encouraged to support those living with the disease and continue the fight against HIV/AIDS.

"A lot of times when people think about AIDS, they think of gay men or people in Africa; they don't think of the JMU student who hooked up last weekend and didn't use a condom properly," Johnson said.

A devastating disease

As the disease becomes increasingly widespread, it can seem like a distant issue that needs to be brought back into the community, Johnson said.

According to an AIDS epidemic update report released yesterday by the Joint United Nations program on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organization, "AIDS has become the most devastating disease humankind has ever faced." The report findings are available on the UNAIDS Web site at www.unaids.org.
Twenty years after it was first identified, AIDS has killed more than 20 million people and another 40 million are infected with the virus.

This year's World AIDS Day theme, "I care … do you?," is being used to encompass the week's events. This week, "brown bag lunches" were held discussing AIDS-related topics as well as faculty panel presentations on the community's responsibility to the worldwide AIDS epidemic.

"Even if you're not HIV positive or know anyone who is, it's still a problem that affects all of us," Johnson said.

The epidemic update released by the WHO and UNAIDS found AIDS to be the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa and the fourth largest cause of death worldwide. Despite this, the report said millions of young people still know very little about the epidemic and how to prevent infection.

The Health Center, which offers free and anonymous HIV testing all year, has extended testing hours for World AIDS Week. Testing is available today from 3 to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Normal HIV testing hours are Monday from 1 to 3 p.m., Wednesday from 11 a.m. to noon and 4 to 5 p.m. and Thursday from 3 to 4 p.m.

Michelle Wharton, coordinator of Peer Programs and HIV testing at the UHC said, "Very few students get tested here." Wharton estimated that less than 100 students get tested each semester. She said she hopes World AIDS Week events will encourage students to take advantage of the testing facilites on campus and to practice safer sex.

Paint the town red

Today, students can show support by wearing red for "Paint the Town Red Day." Students and community members living with the disease or directly affected by it will share experiences at an AIDS story sharing and speakout at 8 p.m. in Warren Loft.

The event aims to give students a connection to the effects of HIV/AIDS within the community, said junior Raul Burgos, co-coordinator of Harmony and event organizer. "It puts a face to the disease so it brings the issue closer to home," he said.

The Valley AIDS Tribute Quilt will kick off its project Saturday (World AIDS Day) at 2 p.m. on the Quad. The quilt is to be a local version of the national AIDS memorial quilt, said Jason McKnight, a graduate assistant in the office of sexual assault prevention.

A caring quilt

JMU student organizations and departments, Valley AIDS network clients, volunteers as well as Harrisonburg community members and businesses can pick up quilt squares at the Health Center.

The completed squares along with a donation to the Valley AIDS Network will begin the quilt's first year of panels.

"Each piece of the quilt is in memory of those who have died of AIDS and in support of those still fighting and living with it," McKnight said. According to McKnight, people already have begun to pick up quilt squares and the initial response has been immense.

"The quilt is not something that will fade," he said. "It serves as a constant reminder in our community that the fight against AIDS will continue."

"I care… now what?" is a program culminating the week's events at Grafton-Stovall Theatre Sunday at 7:30 p.m. According to Johnson, the program aims to present students with information on various ways individuals can contribute to the cause both locally and nationally.

"It's not a problem we can solve in a week," Johnson said. "We have to keep caring until we find a cure."

World AIDS Week events were sponsored by the Health Center, JMU's Women's Resource Center, the Center for Mulitcultural and International Student Services and the Valley AIDS Network.