Most Tufts students know the risks of contracting AIDS, but some dismiss the notion that they are at risk. AIDS Awareness Week was organized for just this reason - to serve as an opportunity for students to learn the dangers of HIV and AIDS.
Today is World AIDS Day, an annual commemoration by the World Health Organization that began in 1988. Approximately 180 countries observe Aids Day, working to educate the public and advocate intensive research to find a cure for the epidemic.
Here at Tufts, two organizations - AIDS Outreach and VISIONS - will spend their time informing the community and promoting awareness about the disease.
AIDS Outreach, a branch of the Leonard Carmichael Society (LCS) that works mainly within the Tufts community, sponsored several events, including discussions in South and Carmichael Halls as well as other lectures around campus.
AIDS Outreach will also be displaying a piece of the national AIDS quilt in the Large Conference Room of the campus center today. The quilt is a memorial dedicated to those who have suffered and ultimately died from AIDS, and is kept in Washington, DC.
Last night, the group sponsored a lecture by a 30 year-old HIV positive victim. Sophomore Rebecca Grossman-Cohen, one of the two coordinators for AIDS Outreach, said that the lecture was the best way to educate the community - providing a first-hand account from someone who is suffering from the disease. Last April the group brought Denise Stokes to campus, herself a victim of AIDS, to speak about living with the disease. Students packed Cabot Auditorium, and many were inspired to get HIV tests.
"Tufts [students], like most of the rest of our... age group, really think they're untouchable and invincible; we're in this bubble that's hard to pop," Grossman-Cohen said.
Junior Natalie McCabe, co-president of VISIONS, expressed similar sentiments about the perception of immortality in youth. "My concern is whether Tufts students, or students around the globe, can translate this knowledge into active precautions and responsible actions when it comes to issues of protection. All too often young people feel invincible and exempt from the possibility that HIV could, in fact, infect them," she said.
While the disease has been publicized heavily for the last two decades, student groups such as AIDS Outreach and VISIONS are still struggling to dispel myths about HIV and AIDS.
"There is a myth that's more recent that AIDS is not a crisis anymore.... It's very frightening that people believe that because that's not the case at all," Grossman-Cohen said. According to AIDS Outreach, people between the ages of 25 and 44 are in the highest risk category for contracting the disease. AIDS is a leading cause of death for people in this age group.
AIDS Outreach's goals are widespread; they go above and beyond simply providing lecturers. Recently the group worked with ResLife to place condoms outside residential assistants' doors.
AIDS Outreach also hopes to provide free and anonymous HIV testing at Health Services. Currently the tests cost about $80 and are not anonymous - a disincentive for students to get tested.
Although VISIONS, an international non-profit organization, does most of its work for organizations outside of Tufts, members try to be active on campus as well. Recently the group worked with LCS and Hillel to organize a three-week food, clothing, and school supplies drive. McCabe said the donations will go to several Boston organizations including Community Servings (a food bank providing food for 650 HIV positive people each day), the AIDS Action Committee, CASPAR (a shelter for recovering addicts), and a Boston high school.
Today, VISIONS will distribute red AIDS-awareness ribbons in the campus center. They will also have information regarding testing centers in the local area for HIV and other STDs.
