AIDS is very real, though there have been several leaders that have tried to tell us otherwise. It is single handedly the largest killer in Africa, and many other countries as well. There is an estimated 33 million people living with the HIV/AIDS virus in the world. 22.4 million of those people live in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Southern African countries somewhere between 15-20% of all adults are infected. I read a quote that said, "Each day 6000 Africans die from AIDS. Each day an additional 11,000 are infected." 6000 Africans dying of AIDS every single day. This figure just blows my mind.
An estimated 42,000 children have been orphaned due to losing one or both parents to AIDS. 90% of children who are infected with AIDS live in Sub-Saharan Africa. Of those children, most will die before they reach the age of two. Of the few that survive to adolescence they will most likely be stunted and severely underweight. Most children infected with the virus will not survive to adulthood. I can put faces with these figures. And it breaks my heart.
South Africa has more people infected with the virus than any other country in the world. In 2009 South Africa had close to 6 million people living with AIDS. This was roughly 18% of all South African adults. Life expectancy is around 50. Life expectancy in the U.S. is around 80. In 2007 there were 350,000 HIV/AIDS related deaths in this country of just under 50 million people.
When I went to South Africa in 2007, I was exposed to the AIDS epidemic for probably the first time in my life. One of the missionaries my team worked with drove us past a cemetery (of which there are many in Johannesburg) filled with rows and rows of fresh graves. She told us that in their part of Joberg the cemeteries only do burials on Saturdays. Each Saturday, that small cemetery would be filled with 30 new graves. Nearly all of those were AIDS victims. Throughout the whole trip we were told to be extremely cautious when dealing with cuts. Though it's impossible to know which of the children were infected, chances are several were. Some of those kids will not be there the next time I go to South Africa. One of our translators on the trip was a mMa who at that time was caring for sixteen orphans. Almost all had lost their parents to AIDS. AIDS is very, very real.
It's sobering to think about. It makes me sad and angry at the same time. How can so many people be suffering from this? Why isn't more being do
ne? What even can be done? I don't know the answer to these questions. All I know is that we can pray. Pray for the people infected. Pray for those that haven't been infected. Pray for the governments of these people that they would be willing and seeking help, that they would not be so corrupted that they stop looking out for the well-being of their people. Pray for the missionaries. That the words of Truth they share would take seed in the hearts of the people of Africa. That through these missionaries people would be educated on abstinence, and how a Biblical view of sex and marriage can greatly combat the spread of this disease. Pray.
That is all we can do.
mMa Jikalano (spell check??), Kirsten and I playing Duck, Duck Goose at the VBS in Sondela.
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