Happy World AIDS Awareness Day!!!

Posters from a school in Togliatti. They are representations of how HIV cannot be transmitted (e.g. toilet seat, bug bites, sharing food utensils, etc.).


December 1st is the international date to "celebrate" HIV/AIDS awareness. For this day, Theatre LIGHT (the organization I'm working with) and other local organizations organized a rock concert to promote awareness of the disease. The original concept of the concert was to be an acoustic concert with a cozy atmosphere. That concept was thrown out when a local university said, "We'll give you $$$$, but we want a rock concert." Okay. They had the money, they won. All in all, it was a successful concert and about 200 people showed up.

During the day, Aerospace University had an event to promote awareness amongst the student body.

- Samara ranks third in the Russian Federation for having a high rate of HIV infection and prevalence.
- Unofficially, 1 out of 35 people in Samara Region is infected with HIV (most are unaware or haven't been tested).

Check out the video that Riet and I created. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6TiZQ7vSjI
The theme is that every 7 seconds in the world, a person in infected with HIV.

Get tested. It's possible that you don't see signs or symptoms for YEARS. It's responsible and it's a very selfless action. Know your status.