Years after my first experience with the shelter, I was standing in a Chicago airport when I received a call from a friend, Michelle, who was Ashley Judd’s assistant. She called on behalf of Ashley, a student at that time, who was in Asia. Michelle told me Ashley was working in the field as a global ambassador for the HIV/AIDS initiative YouthAIDS. YouthAIDS is an action-driven, non-profit initiative of a much larger global health organization, PSI, whose main interest is to protect, educate, and provide products, information, and services to young people worldwide affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. They work to generate funds and raise awareness to prevent the spread of HIV amongst today’s youth. I was informed that 50 percent of those newly infected with HIV/AIDS were young people, between the ages of 15-24. Most didn’t know they carried the disease. Ashley was working with YouthAIDS in impoverished areas where the pandemic is most evident. She was holding babies with AIDS in orphanages, and speaking with young prostitutes working in makeshift brothels that were nothing more than hung plastic sheets on the sidewalks of small impoverished villages. She was feeling overwhelmed by the poverty, ignorance, and abuse. Ashley knew that I worked with young prostitutes in the U.S. and wanted to know if I had any words of support or wisdom for her.

I shared my experiences and offered my humble suggestions, but I thought a lot about Ashley and those children after that call. Many of the kids at Children of the Night had been infected by HIV/AIDS, but because of our national resources, were learning to live with the disease. I was aware that there is no vaccine and no cure, but didn’t consider that the life-extending drugs that are available to us in this country are far out of reach for most of the 40 million people who currently live with HIV. I ignorantly had believed that our governments were doing more to eliminate this disease, but Ashley’s experience made me critically aware that this was an International emergency. AIDS, Ashley later told me, was not a cause, but a crisis.

I wanted to understand more.