Seattle Pacific University students are choosing not to look away from AIDS. Instead, students are acting to protect those most vulnerable.
AIDS infects the innocent, orphans children, and leaves a heavy burden of stigma and discrimination resting on the shoulders of those who have lost everything.
The tragedy of HIV/AIDS in Africa knocks vulnerable children deeper into poverty, where the disease flourishes. SPU students are partnering with World Concern to pick them up together--and help give them a chance for a better life.
You can help change the futures of hurting kids by caring for one orphan.
Every gift matters. $100 provides care for one orphan or vulnerable child for a year. $50 supports an orphan for six months.
Even $5 makes a difference, providing support for two weeks.
World Concern's holistic approach helps orphans in three ways:
On Dec. 1, 2009, Seattle Pacific University students teamed with World Concern to show the impact of AIDS.
<<See photos from the event on the World Concern Humanitarian Blog. >>
They installed 1,000 crosses near the loop, the prominent grassy area on the SPU campus. The 1,000 crosses represent the number of deaths in four hours because of AIDS.
During the day, students and SPU faculty and staff were invited to donate $5, and in turn receive a button stating that they "Will Not Look Away" from the AIDS crisis.
A $5 donation supports an orphaned child with critical needs for two weeks.
In the evening, the student group ACT:S hosted a guest speaker from World Vision. The AIDS director from World Concern also detailed the current crisis and why we are called to help.
Seattle-based Christian humanitarian organization World Concern works in the lives of those affected by HIV and AIDS in Haiti, Zambia, Kenya and Vietnam.
Crispin is just three years old, wearing a pink shirt and denim dress, reclining near her grandmother in the shade of a large tree in rural Kenya.
Near Crispin are about a dozen other orphans from her village, in a region where the rate of AIDS is 11 times higher than in the United States.
The virus robbed these children and babies of their parents.
And few will admit it
“Normally here, they will not tell you it is HIV that killed them,” said Winnie Gachuri, a World Concern worker in Kenya.
A World Concern volunteer has called this gathering under the leaves, in part to try and unify the community and help eliminate the stigma of AIDS.
Too often, the stigma prompts people with the virus to refuse to be tested, and leaves those who know they have AIDS to become ostracized.
World Concern is a Christian humanitarian organization that focuses on sustainable development for the poor in Africa, Asia and the Americas. We work in some of the world’s most remote places, offering life, opportunity and hope to 6.5 million people a year in the name of Christ.
Learn more about us at www.worldconcern.org.
