When life is short.

HIV/AIDS. What do you know about it? Um... it's bad. Do you know much else about it? This week's topic was, yup you guessed it, HIV/AIDS. Our speakers were Larry and Joyce Sandberg, former missionaries to Swaziland. They have been involved in missions since 1960. How great is that? That's a lot of years spent serving the Lord. They still go to Swaziland every year. And they're in the seventies. How many people their age do you know who are that crazy dedicated to helping others? Talk about inspiration. So back to AIDS. What is HIV/AIDS? HIV stands for Human Immune Deficiency Virus and AIDS is short for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Larry is a physician and he spent most of the week talking about biology and all the technical and complicated aspects of the disease. Basically the majority of it went right over my head. Just being honest. Science was never my favorite. And this week was no different. But do you know what? I was inspired. First and foremost I was inspired by this awesome elderly couple who just wouldn't give a boring retirement plan the time of day. I was inspired because no matter their age, they are still dedicated to helping AIDS orphans and fulfilling the Great Commission. That's the kind of life I want to lead. The second way in which I was inspired was to go out and do my own research. I think that's the best thing any teacher can do: inspire their students to want to learn for themselves. So let's get a run down of HIV/AIDS.  "[HIV] is the virus that causes AIDS. A member of a group of viruses called retroviruses, HIV infects human cells and uses the energy and nutrients provided by those cells to grow and reproduce... [AIDS] is a disease in which the body’s immune system breaks down and is unable to fight off infections, known as "opportunistic infections," and other illnesses that take advantage of a weakened immune system.When a person is infected with HIV, the virus enters the body and lives and multiplies primarily in the white blood cells. These are immune cells that normally protect us from disease. The hallmark of HIV infection is the progressive loss of a specific type of immune cell called T-helper, or CD4, cells. As the virus grows, it damages or kills these and other cells, weakening the immune system and leaving the person vulnerable to various opportunistic infections and other illnesses ranging from pneumonia to cancer. A person can receive a clinical diagnosis of AIDS, as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), if he or she has tested positive for HIV and meets one or both of these conditions: The presence of one or more AIDS-related infections or illnesses; A CD4 count that has reached or fallen below 200 cells per cubic millimeter of blood. Also called the T-cell count, the CD4 count ranges from 450 to 1200 in healthy individuals (Source.)" HIV/AIDS is spread via sex, tainted blood (needle sharing, blood transfusions), to infants during pregnancy or birth, or breastfeeding (Source.) So how bad exactly is this whole AIDS things? 

"Statistics: Worldwide

LAST UPDATED NOVEMBER 2010

• More than 33 million people now live with HIV/AIDS.
• 2.5 million of them are under the age of 15.
• In 2009, an estimated 2.6 million people were newly infected with HIV.
• 370,000 were under the age of 15.
• Every day more than 7,000 people contract HIV—more than 300 every hour.
• In 2009, 1.8 million people died from AIDS.
• 260,000 of them were under the age of 15.
• Since the beginning of the epidemic, more than 60 million people have contracted HIV and more than 25 million have died of AIDS-related causes. (Source.)"

Pretty bad isn't it? Every Thursday night my class gets together and watches a movie about injustice in the world. This week we watched a movie starring Tom Hanks called Philadelphia. It's a heart breaking story about a man suffering from the horrors of AIDS and the prejudice that accompanied his illness. I should mention that Hank's character is gay. Although this may be a seemingly controversial movie, I enjoyed it a lot and would recommend it. It shows that AIDS is not only in Africa and that people with AIDS are still people. Even if they are gay. Remembering what I learned in week four of this school, our speaker Philipa Laird emphasized the fact that we can learn from any situation. Even a secular movie that is pro-homosexual. I would recommend the movie if you're interested in learning more about AIDS in the USA. And this movie was inspired by a true story. So I would encourage you to read up and learn more on AIDS. I will be. May you be inspired as I have been inspired. Throughout the world there are over 15 million children are orphans due to AIDS (Source.) I hope to help some of them one day. Maybe even in Swaziland just like Larry and Joyce Sandberg. I hope so. Sometime very soon. Probably sooner than you think ;)

Quote of the week: “Nothing brings me more happiness than trying to help the most vulnerable people in society. It is a goal and an essential part of my life - a kind of destiny. Whoever is in distress can call on me. I will come running wherever they are.”