Dear Friends,
Today, Dec. 1, is World AIDS Day. You probably won’t hear anything else about it unless you live in a big city, maybe see a small item in the paper about it. Unless you have AIDS or have had a loved one die of it, the day pretty much passes unnoticed here in the comfortable, suburban United States.
But AIDS undoes families. AIDS kills dads, then moms, AIDS leaves small children to care for themselves or to be juggled from home to home. AIDS carries with it stigma, finger pointing, whispering and outcasting. How are small children to deal with such intense negativity while also coping with the grief from the loss of their family members?
25:40 is trying to reach these children in rural South Africa by identifying them, pulling them close, nurturing them, holding our arms out for them and open to them.
But 25:40 is not just a small group of passionate people who put on small events here and there to raise some money to maintain these programs. 25:40 is you and me and your family and mine and your neighbor and my neighbor.
With World AIDS Day falling at the beginning of the Advent season, let’s think about the Great Give-Away.
Ann Voskamp is a farmer’s wife, mother to six children, a strong Christian and an amazing writer and photographer. Yesterday she wrote about her children wanting to rename Christmas “The Greatest Give-Away Ever.” A Holy Experience Jesus gave up paradise to take the form of a human, a baby, only to give away his life for all of us. So Christmas is the greatest give-away ever, she writes.
But what are God’s people giving away in return? Voskamp asks, “Why is the world hungry when God’s people have bread? Are bread? What is there more to be in this life than to be bread for another man?”
Dana Casanave and Jay Rowley know that answer. Two weeks ago, 25:40 gave its “Ithemba Award” (Xhosa for hope) to Dana and Jay for bringing hope to the children in rural South Africa whom 25:40 serves. Dana, from Leesburg, VA, spent 2010 running 52 marathons in 52 weeks 52 Beginnings.
She raised $15,000 for 25:40, enough to keep the Masonwabe aftercare program for 40 orphans operating for a year.
After graduating from Notre Dame in May, Jay Rowley, of Fairfax Station, VA, spent last summer in Canzibe, helping to organize that aftercare program and get it running smoothly. He worked with the teachers and the children for 2 1/2 months. He was there on the ground showing he cared.
This year’s World AIDS Day is a reason to celebrate. In 2011, unprecedented scientific and political progress was made in the fight against AIDS. New HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths have fallen to the lowest levels since the peak of the epidemic, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS UNAIDS Report.
This progress did not happen in a vacuum. People the world over are stepping up and doing something to stop the spread of AIDS. You also can step up this AIDS Day, this Advent season. One person can make a difference in the lives of many children.
Whatever steps you take, they don’t have to be as dramatic as Dana’s or Jay’s. It is easy to make a difference in small ways. Think of your talents, your gifts, your passions, your time.
What can you give away to make a difference in a hungry, hurting world?
We can start by honoring and celebrating every year — Dec. 1 — World AIDS Day. What will you do today? What will be your great give-away?
