When Ashley came home we got together and she told me about the brothels in Nairobi, where commercial sex workers work three and four in a room separated only by a sheet. They often charge $1 for sex with a condom and $2 for sex without. She explained that AIDS has changed Sub-Saharan Africa into a continent of orphans. We spoke of the local shame, the global denial, and the continued worldwide poverty that makes it impossible for people to get the necessary life extending drugs. In developing nations (as well as here in the U.S.), hunger and poverty often force our children to degrade and sell their bodies in order to survive or feed their families. These millions of children are not being educated on how to protect themselves and others from HIV/AIDS. Mass spreading is an inevitable result.

Here are some of the things that I learned that I think you should know:

• We are in the third decade of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.


• AIDS could claim up to 100 million lives worldwide by 2020 if nothing changes.


• At this rate, AIDS will be the worst epidemic in human history.


• HIV is preventable.


• The HIV/AIDS epidemic has already claimed over 20 million lives.


• An estimated 39.4 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS.


• HIV is the leading cause of death worldwide, among those ages 15-59.


• 12 million young people aged 15 to 24 are now living with HIV/AIDS.


• In 2004 - almost 5 million people were newly infected with HIV & more than 3 million people died.


• More than a million children under the age of 15 died from AIDS in 2004.


• Every day 14,000 people contract HIV—ten people per minute.


• Worldwide, most people living with HIV are unaware they are infected.


• 50% of those newly infected with HIV today are young people, between 15 and 24 years old.


• 64% of those young people are girls - in some countries, infection rates are up to 6 times higher among young women than young men.


• 15 million children living today have been orphaned due to AIDS, having lost one or both parents to the epidemic.


• Almost 7,000 young adults become infected with HIV every day.

AIDS kills one child every minute.

Ashley passionately described YouthAIDS and the powerful initiatives that they were activating around the world, including voluntary counseling and testing services and reproductive health programs. In 2006, they managed to avert hundreds of thousands of cases of HIV/AIDS, a direct result of their programs and efforts. In 2006 Oprah Winfrey named YouthAIDS one of the top ten charities in the country.

That conversation with Ashley spoke to something deep within me and I knew I needed to participate in some way to make a difference in the lives of young people around the world . . .