Monday, October 17, 2011

AIDS videos.

My first reaction when I found out that I had to watch a fifteen minute video on AIDS, I was dreading it because it's usually just the same old stuff about how terrible it is. As I was watching it though, I found it to be so interesting and so awful that things like that actually happen in the world. It just doesn't even seem right that such ignorance and lack of knowledge exists on such a serious and life threatening issue. As you would hear some of the women talk about themselves having to have a sexual relationship with the guy catching the fish just so she could feed her family because of having no source of income due to her husband passing away from the disease is heart wrenching. My prayers really go out to the families that have to experience this. Especially the kids who are 14 years old having to take care of their brothers and sisters because they lost both of their parents to AIDS. These poor children see that and that ends up being their destiny. I knew that the virus was bad in Africa but I had no idea that it was to this extent. God bless the man attempting to educate groups of people in Africa that this is definitely not a curse but a deadly disease that can be prevented simply by wearing a condom or properly wearing a condom. Hopefully he will be even the slightest bit successful to save these people from the virus.
I believe that the effects of the AIDS virus is so much more massive in Africa then they are in the United States because there is such a lack of knowledge and education of the disease. Also, there is such a large amount poverty and these are so desperate to survive that they feel as though they have no other choice but to sell themselves for their life and their families lives. The knowledge that I had about this virus before watching there videos was pretty great in regards to how so many people were so uneducated and how there was so much poverty that it created a greater spread because African people wanted to survive, but I had no idea that it was to this great of an extent. These poor women have sex with men that catch fish so they can feed their family of six, a meal for only one. The culture that was created in Africa keeps getting passed on to the children because when a family member that was having sex for food dies from the virus, their children become vulnerable to the same actions just to survive because there is no other source of income for them. To be completely honest with this issue, I don't think there are a lot of different options as far as solutions to this epidemic. I think the man that goes around telling people about how this can be prevented is the best option. Maybe if more people participated in this and really pushed the issue that it is a permanent virus that will eventually kill you and not a curse, African people may have the opportunity to get this all under control.

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