IN A Time of Need
"Everyday lost is a day in when 10,000 more people become infected with AID." - Kofi Annan
Seventeen million people are dead. Twenty-five million more have the same death sentence hanging over their heads. An entire continent is held captive by the fear of this killing machine. By the year 2010 life expectancy on this continent will have plummeted to the levels found at the beginning of the last century. This phenomenon is described as pandemic, a word formed from the Greek roots "pan" meaning all and "dem" meaning people. It is affecting all people and it will continue to do so unless drastic steps are taken right now to break the stranglehold that this killer has over a whole continent.
No word more fully describes the effects of the AIDS virus in Africa then pandemic. The statistics speak for themselves. Entire generations are dying in their beds; entire generations are growing up as orphans living day to day in extreme poverty hoping and praying that this deadly disease won't find them.
Africa
Satellite image of Africa, showing the ecological ...
English: South Africa HIV & AIDS OrphanageThe United States and other United Nations countries have already contributed millions of dollars in aid to Africa. The money has been spent, through a variety of different programs, to purchase drugs, condoms, fund AIDS awareness education and ultimately stop the spread of AIDS in Africa. But it has not been enough. These programs and the economic aid have clearly fallen well short of what is required to defeat this disease. AIDS has continued to spread all over the continent at an alarming rate. The United States must set an example by refusing to succumb to pessimism and refusing to consider Africa a "lost cause." The United States must now take the lead and increase aid to Africa as well as re-evaluate the...