Last week, dozens of student had the chance to learn about and join the fight against the modern pandemic of HIV/AIDS thanks to HIV/AIDS Awareness Week.
The week, prepared by a variety of organizations including DUPB, the HIV/AIDS Awareness Committee, PINS, and Students for Africa, gave students a variety of event opportunities. These included volunteering with Project Angel Heart on Monday, a speaker from the HIV/AIDS Project of the Children’s Hospital on Tuesday, the South African film “Yesterday,” and an African photo exhibit on Thursday and Friday.
Looking back on the week, Jenny Oertell, a member of the HIV/AIDS Awareness Committee said, “Each event was very impactful in its own way.”
However, all of the events drove home the same message that HIV/AIDS is a very real problem in today’s world.
In the words of one student, “People dismiss AIDS as being strictly an African problem when in fact it’s also a problem here in metro Denver.”
The week’s first two events served to highlight this problem. On Monday, students got the chance to help people in Denver living with HIV/AIDS by volunteering with Project Angel Heart. Student helped to prepare meals for Denver locals living with HIV/AIDS. Angel Heart began fifteen years ago with the mission of providing meals to people dealing with not only HIV/AIDS, but also with cancer and other life threatening illnesses.
One of the most touching moments of HIV/AIDS Awareness Week came Tuesday when representatives from the Children’s Hospital spoke. The first was Malinda Beety, a social worker with the HIV/AIDS Project at Children’s Hospital. She described some of her experiences working with children and parents affected by HIV/AIDS. She also spoke of the types of specialized healthcare available. The next speaker brought a more personal and heart-breaking perspective to the issue of HIV/AIDS. The speaker was a 20-year-old woman who was diagnosed with HIV several years ago. Her experiences and difficulties with family, friends, and healthcare defined the worldwide pandemic of AIDS in local and personal terms.
The HIV/AIDS Awareness Committee, in conjunction with the University of Denver Programs Board, showed the South African film “Yesterday” in Davis auditorium on Thursday evening. “Yesterday” is the heart-rending story of a South African villager who is infected with HIV. The movie chronicles how she becomes an outcast within her own village and how she discovers the courage within herself to face her disease without fear. Prior to the film’s screening, several prizes were handed out in a raffle.
On Friday, the Gilbert Cyber CafCB) of the Graduate School of International Studies was the site of an African photo exhibi, which showed a large collection of photographs taken by DU students who worked in AIDS orphanages in Malawi and Kenya. These photographs were auctioned off to raise funds for Ripples, Inc., a nonprofit organization operating in Kenya. The exhibit was made possible by PINS, Students for Africa and the HIV/AIDS Awareness Committee.
At the end of the week, students had the opportunity to participate in the Mamma Mia 5K Run, a citywide event created to benefit HIV Care Link.
“The Mamma Mia run on Saturday was a fun way to end a wonderful week and to share our cause with other Awareness organizations in Denver,”added Jenny Oertell looking back on the week. “I cannot pick one event that was the most important because I feel that they all intertwined to make the week an overall success.”
