With World AIDS Day just around the corner, a new movement has formed to drive momentum toward the goal of ending the AIDS crisis by 2020: ACT V (Five), led by Leigh Blake and Paul Zeitz. It’s called Act V because, as they see it, the AIDS movement has been defined by four key acts over the last three decades, and today we stand on the cusp of a 5th and final act:
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the discovery of HIV/AIDS. But this World AIDS Day –- December 1st — we’re commemorating it as a call to action to help bring about the beginning of the end of AIDS… and it starts with you.
We’re proud to announce the launch of the (2015)QUILT, a groundbreaking digital tool that brings people from all over the world together to fight for a historic achievement –- the delivery of the first AIDS-free generation in more than 30 years. Watch our latest video and get started now:
Guest blogger Natalie Zutter from Crushable, an entertainment blog, offers an interesting perspective to our World AIDS Day coverage this week.
Thursday, December 1 marks World AIDS Day, an opportunity for people all over the planet to get educated on the facts about HIV/AIDS, what it’s like to live with the disease today, and how to prevent it. All week at Crushable, we’ll be talking about what HIV/AIDS means to you, our readers, in terms of pop culture.
Click on the graphic below to view the slideshow:
In the spirit of dispelling myths and sharing knowledge, we’ve gathered up 12 different portrayals of TV and movie characters who have the disease. Some have died, others are living with it, but all taught us something about it. In chronological order, here are the high points (and a few low ones) of how HIV/AIDS has been depicted in film, television, and even reality TV from 1986 to 2011.
Global health fund urges donors not to ‘abandon’ millions in face of financial pressures – The executive director of the financially troubled Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria says that “although donors are under severe financial pressure, ‘now is not the time to abandon millions of people who are still in need.’” Christpoh Benn, a Fund official, explained that “U.S. and European budget problems have hurt it, but that there also has been donor backlash over its losses to corruption and other misspending.” (AP)
1-Funding crunch puts progress on AIDS at risk – The United Nations health agency reported Wednesday that a funding crisis is putting recent progress in the fight against AIDS at risk. The tools to achieve an AIDS-free generation are finally available, yet a “decline in international donor money to battle the disease is dampening optimism” about the possibilities of ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Annual funding fell to $15 billion in 2010, far below the $22 billion needed by 2015 to fund an effective global response to the disease. (Reuters, Kate Kelland)
Every day this week, we’ll be highlighting a personal story from our new AIDS report, “Progress. Proof. Promise.” Professor Luc Montagnier, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2008 for his work on AIDS, talks about some of the ways that we can reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
Early in 2009, UNAIDS called for the “virtual elimination” of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. And today, we have real hope that this is possible. Thanks to a range of affordable and easy interventions, in recent years, elimination of mother-to-child transmission has become not just an aspiration, but a plausible goal.
It is true that the containment of the HIV epidemic, and especially of mother-to-child transmission, still depends on the socioeconomic, cultural and political milieu of a country. Mother-to-child transmission has already been virtually eliminated in high-resource settings through the use of several strategies, such as effective voluntary counseling and testing, access to antiretroviral therapy, safe delivery practices, and the widespread availability and safe use of breast-milk substitutes.
Please welcome Priscilla Nguyen to the ONE Blog. She is an intern for ONE’s operations team.
At the inaugural Mbele Africa Inter-College Convention at Dartmouth College, a group of 50 student leaders from across the United States gathered to network, discuss development projects and brainstorm ideas for Africa’s future.
Participants of Mbele Africa discuss pertinent issues for African development such as “Science and Technology” over breakfast. Photo credit: Michael Sugimura
It just so happened that on the weekend I chose to visit my alma mater, Dartmouth College, they were hosting the Mbele Africa Inter-College Convention, a student event focused on the role of youths in African development. As an intern at ONE, I jumped at the opportunity to see what these young African activists are doing on the ground.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
