I don't really ever talk about this but in reality it is all around me, luckily, touch wood, it has not touched my family, touch touch touch more wood, but it has effected the families all around me. This reality is the HIV/AIDS epidemic which is plaguing the country of South Africa. According to the latest statistics South Africa currently has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the world with 18.1% of it's population now infected with the HIV virus and an estimated 71% of all deaths being traced back to this illness. One in every 5 adults in South Africa have HIV/AIDS and 59% of women over the age of 15 are now infected.
HIV is a very silent epidemic, you do not always notice it, but what you do notice is the absurd amount of funerals that happen all the time. This weekend, just in my small area of Zone 4 there were 4 HIV related funerals. All of the now dead were young people in their 30's. One of these people was my neighbour living just 5 houses down. In one house there were 4 people with this disease, now there are three.
So although this is a sad post I hope that you can take a moment and reflect on your own life and realize just how blessed you and I are, we live in a place with food, social support systems, low crime and low disease rates. For many people around the world this sadly is not the case.
Catherine
catherine, just was reading about the very sad fact that in lesotho the average lifespan is now 35 years because of AIDs. truly beyond comprehension.
ReplyDelete