HIV/AIDS STATISTIC

Sub-Saharan Africa is more heavily affected by HIV and AIDS than any other region of the world. An estimated 22.4 million people are living with HIV in the region - around two thirds of the global total. In 2008 around 1.4 million people died from AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa and 1.9 million people became infected with HIV. Since the beginning of the epidemic, more than 14 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS.

In the absence of massively expanded prevention, treatment and care efforts, it is expected that the AIDS death toll in sub-Saharan Africa will continue to rise. This means the impact of the AIDS epidemic on these societies will be felt most strongly in the course of the next ten years and beyond. Its social and economic consequences are already widely felt, not only in the health sector but also in education, industry, agriculture, transport, human resources and the economy in general. The AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa threatens to devastate whole communities, rolling back decades of development progress.

Bantu Hope Ministries HIV/AIDS project in Cameroon:

Bantu Hope uses peer education to reach the population with HIV prevention messages. We work through local community and social gatherings such as “women’s group” to develop and implement our peer education programs; first we select popular and influential individuals in the community to provide HIV prevention information to their peers.

These influential individuals in the community first attend a two-day HIV/AIDS seminar. The focus of the two-day seminar is twofold: HIV/AIDS education and the training of trainers to do what they just learn all by themselves. They are trained on basic information about HIV/AIDS, on ways to assess risk, on practical strategies for changing risky behavior, and on ways to communicate with peers. After the seminar they are released to their community to serve as endorsers of the official HIV/AIDS prevention programs designed to change social norms and risky behaviors.

Although these seminars are free, the attendee must support themselves during those two days of training. The cost varies from $75 to $100 per attendee to cover the lodging, transportation, and food for three days.

According to the UN report card concerning HIV/AIDS prevention for girls and young women in Cameroon, there are multiple barriers hindering the implementation of HIV/AIDS prevention programs such as the lack of logistic and poverty.

"There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land." Deuteronomy 15:11

So by making even the smallest donation you can help us to train local people in Cameroon to become leaders and peers educators in their villages about HIV/AIDS prevention programs. Help us spread the word on how AIDS is really contracted and even better -- how to prevent it!

When living become giving, surviving become thriving.