1 December 2005 – World AIDS Day 

Four years after the United Nations General Assembly’s Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS Global Crisis – Global Action,  www.un.org/ga/aids/coverage  the World Health Organization  reports that 8000 persons die daily of HIV/AIDS. World-wide, in 2004, 4.9 million persons were newly infected and 3.1 million died. www.who.int/mdg/  The epidemic ravages sub-saharan Africa in particular, but according to the Millennium Development Goals Report of 2005 it is spreading fastest in European countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and parts of Asia. www.un.org/millenniumgoals/  Prevention through education is crucial since there is still no cure for HIV/AIDS.

Though developed for Africa, the publication What Religious Leaders Can Do About HIV/AIDS, (a collaborative effort of UNICEF, UNAIDS and the World Conference of Religions for Peace) www.religionsforpeace.org/RforP/CHILDREN_CONTENT.html calls on faith based groups to use the credibility and trust they have to: break the silence, end ignorance, offer compassion, involve people living with HIV/AIDS and above all give people hope. For World AIDS Day, December 1, 2005, the article from IBVM South Africa gives one example of how this can happen. Another example is on the web-site of Nyumbani in Kenya where Mary Owens IBVM works. http://www.nyumbani.org