“Small incremental successes.” For Oberlin Student Global AIDS Campaign, that’s what it takes to make a difference.
Student Global AIDS Campaign, since its inception two years ago at Harvard University, has been trying to raise awareness of the AIDS pandemic and to provide as much aid as possible, both politically and financially.
“Global AIDS pandemic is not as much about disease as about global injustice in the world and our failure to deal with the issues that allow the pandemic to spread,” Oberlin SGAC chair senior Noah Heller said.
The 40 percent infection rate in sub-Saharan countries leaves tens of millions of children orphaned and many elderly people with no support. The pandemic has also left the people of many southern African countries hungry and destitute, with a lack of farmers and workers to till the fields.
Oberlin’s Global AIDS chapter has written letters to Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur and postcards to President Bush. Members have raised funds for the Nigerian Youth Action Rangers who push their government to pay attention to the AIDS problem and encourage prevention.
The group also showed a documentary and started a website, ohiostopsglobalaids.org, so that other people in Ohio can join the cause. At the end of this month, 11 Oberlin students will attend a national conference of Student Global AIDS Campaign in Washington, D.C.
The group finds flaws in Bush’s plan of aid. Bush intends to support 12 sub-Saharan countries and two countries in the Caribbean, but he does not address that the pandemic extends beyond Africa. AIDS and HIV have been spreading rapidly through Asia, infecting citizens of China, India, and former Soviet states. At the current rate, over 100 million people could be infected in five years.
Despite these apparently hopeless statistics, it is possible to reverse the infection rate. In Uganda, the HIV prevalence rate in pregnant women in urban areas fell from 29.5 percent in 1992 to 11.3 percent in 2000. The country implemented a prevention and treatment plan, funded largely by western support.
Heller feels that OSGAC is effective because of its well organized, step-by-step approach, which works on the problems behind the problem, such as debt relief and treatment programs.
“It is incumbent on us as a justice issue to do something,” Heller said.