The message.

I've been periodically watching the Face AIDS booth on the West Mall for a few weeks now without noticing much noise. Occasionally a student will come by and chat it up and then maybe move on, which is more than I can say to reactions campaign enthusiasts are getting. Whatever the case, Face AIDS does not seem to be attacking people and getting in their faces about their message, whatever it may be.

While Green Peace and other groups are hounding me to fill out some information, or scam me into donating, the Face AIDS crowd seems a little more laid back. Their banner is easily noticeable and their message (from what I've read) simple, you can make a difference. The group estimates that for about $125 anually, an AIDS patient can recieve treatment which while obviously not offering a cure does offer a short term spike in quality of life. Face AIDS was created by three Stanford students who had worked in Africa during 2004 or 2005. While abroad, they discovered that the biggest problem for AIDS carriers was their inability to work due to the vast complications while tend to accompany the virus. Their question was, "How can we get these people doing something that will help them raise their quality of life?" The answer came in the form of beads. Elderly AIDS patients (and no carriers alike) were able to craft keychain-type pins out of beads which would be sold on American campuses for a few dollars a pop. The money, unlike some other organizations, would go straight back to the communities which produce the pins helping to buy medication.

Since the beginning of the organization in 2005, more than 85 campuses have started a chapter nationwide including Texas. While I'm not sure about their methods here, from what I've been able to read they are a little more aggresive with public awareness stunts at Stanford. Apparently we're content to just sell the crafts here, but once I make contact with the group early next week hopefully I'll get some more insight.

Face Aids

I’m interested in the Face AIDS organization because 1) they are a student organization, while I’m sure there is a team of corporate professionals organizing the international workings of the group, at the local level it is student driven and 2) aids is a very taboo subject. In a time when conservatives and liberals are fighting over the best way to teach sexual education in America (progressive versus abstinence) and discuss population/birth control issues, the 500 pound gorilla in the room is AIDS. It is 100% lethal and a serious problem in America among various minority groups. While the numbers have somewhat stabilized in the past decade, there are still hundreds of thousands of Americans living with it and millions of people effected by their friends, family, spouses, and partners having the virus. However the real issue with AIDS in America lies in the subconscious; does he have it or does she have it? Not knowing who has it causes many people to change, react, or abstain from various sexual encounters. There are also economic issues affected by aids such as the contraception industry. While I have no documentation of it, I would feel safe in the assumption that national condom sales exploded since the discovery of aids. Then there is also the political aspect. For every celebrity you see on TV toting AIDS awareness, you miss seeing a politician pushing it on the agenda. At the very best the political world wants to teach “safe sex” or “abstinence” (depending on which party is in control at the time) which is hardly an answer to the pandemic that AIDS has become.

Face AIDS caught my attention firstly as a joke (is face AIDS worse than regular AIDS?) however in the context of this class I think it makes for an interesting subject. Aside from the various aspects discussed above, you have the entire student side to this story. It sounds like a typical college group, students across America banding together to fight the current issue: Darfur, Tibet, Taco Bell, big business, Ann Coulter, or whatever. However I think this group is a little more interesting because of the American social issues surrounding AIDS. With the rampant spread of AIDS in Africa, it’s fallen on the first world to begin stopping the movement as we have in our own countries. Unfortunately, thus far, we have failed to do so for whatever reason. With a large, nationally-recognized organization like Face AIDS beginning a movement at a younger age, the generations that have grown up with the AIDS scare are getting involved as we realize that this is not just Africa’s problem. I’ll equate it like so, America is one of the most sought after countries in the world for immigrants. As more Africans move into the US and the western world, legally or illegally, we are going to have to test and retest them for AIDS and other diseases. While the internet advertises cheap AIDS tests at $89 and such, it’s no secret that governmental testing will cost more. There will be administrative costs, shipping costs, holding costs, and so on and so forth. Wouldn’t it be more conducive to world health to attempt and slow down, retract, and stop the spread of AIDS in the long run? By distributing condoms and sexual information to the Third World we’d be beginning the process (which I believe we already have).
This is a very complex social issue because while we can relate it to being about “Africa”, it does affect the US. Parents worry about their children using protection, men and women worry about who their partner has been with, testing is expensive (my friend spend $150 last semester for a single test) and the common person simply doesn’t know how to react. It’s much bigger than just, “I like this girl, I hope she doesn’t have AIDS,” or, “look at him, there’s no way he has AIDS.” To be blunt, at this point in globalization that local mindset will on prolong the problem. While I don’t know much about Face AIDS at this point, I’d like to analyze their strategies and see what their goals are and how the strategy is not only affecting those involved, but the audience they target. Do they feel the average college student knows much about AIDS, is truly sexually educated (or abstains for health and not religious reasons), or is simply agnostic? How are partner groups fairing? How is the organization affecting the people in Africa? There’s a gamut of questions here that I’d like to figure out and explore and hopefully I do.