2008 Woodie Awards
Honors College to support South Africa
Shane Madden
Issue date: 3/26/07 Section: Features
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South Africa brings two items to mind. One is beautiful, one is ugly. One is supposed to last forever, while the duration of the other remains to be seen. These two items are diamonds and disease, namely HIV. The nation is seemingly both cursed and blessed.
New York City has a population of over eight million people going about their daily business in the largest city in the United States. How would the daily business of New York City be affected if 5.5 million of those people were infected with HIV? Such is the case oinSouth Africa, as they have the highest density of HIV positive citizensin the world.
Messages similar to this permeate late night television commercials with voice-overs and black and white pictures of small, helpless children. These commercials may raise public awareness, yet at the same time they make the struggles against AIDS in Africa feel a world away to the common American viewer.
That world will be brought much closer this month as the Honors College of West Chester University holds their second annual appeal for Aid to South Africa on March 31. The event allows people to help those affected by HIV in South Africa on the local level through participation and donations. Habitat for Humanity, Circle K, SGA and the Greek community will team up with the Honors College in their fundraising effort.
Honors College freshman Alyssa Conaway explained the utter importance of generating help for South Africa.
"The cause is not important - it is crucial. One thousand people die everyday from AIDS in South Africa, but people around the world do not know about it," she said.
The Honors College hopes to raise funds, but also awareness about the issue as a whole. Knowledge about the issue is necessary before knowing how to get involved and making a contribution. South Africa, while in dire need of funds to battle AIDS, is also in dire need of hope for a better future.
"If at the end of this event we have made the community more aware of not only the problems but the hope in South Africa, I will be ecstatic," Conaway said.
New York City has a population of over eight million people going about their daily business in the largest city in the United States. How would the daily business of New York City be affected if 5.5 million of those people were infected with HIV? Such is the case oinSouth Africa, as they have the highest density of HIV positive citizensin the world.
Messages similar to this permeate late night television commercials with voice-overs and black and white pictures of small, helpless children. These commercials may raise public awareness, yet at the same time they make the struggles against AIDS in Africa feel a world away to the common American viewer.
That world will be brought much closer this month as the Honors College of West Chester University holds their second annual appeal for Aid to South Africa on March 31. The event allows people to help those affected by HIV in South Africa on the local level through participation and donations. Habitat for Humanity, Circle K, SGA and the Greek community will team up with the Honors College in their fundraising effort.
Honors College freshman Alyssa Conaway explained the utter importance of generating help for South Africa.
"The cause is not important - it is crucial. One thousand people die everyday from AIDS in South Africa, but people around the world do not know about it," she said.
The Honors College hopes to raise funds, but also awareness about the issue as a whole. Knowledge about the issue is necessary before knowing how to get involved and making a contribution. South Africa, while in dire need of funds to battle AIDS, is also in dire need of hope for a better future.
"If at the end of this event we have made the community more aware of not only the problems but the hope in South Africa, I will be ecstatic," Conaway said.
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