WORLD AIDS DAY

Did you know that today is WORLD AIDS DAY, designed as a day to draw together, across international lines, and do what we can to PREVENT, and one day ELIMINATE, this horrible disease.

I don't need to elaborate how vital this is, or spend time breaking down stereotypes long proven wrong: we know that HIV/AIDS can affect ANYONE, regardless of race, class, religion, morality, age, socioeconomic status, sexual preference, or gender. We know that every person infected by this disease is someone's son or daughter, and is here for some larger purpose in the scheme of our world, and that every person's life has value. If we can find one solution to prevent one new infection this year, World AIDS Day 2010 will not be in vain.

In the early 1980s we knew of 40 cases of HIV/AIDS Worldwide. Today that number is roughly 40 MILLION, and 30% of those infected reside in South Africa ALONE. This is due to many factors of course, but clearly many of them point to one area that has been sorely neglected: PREVENTION. To prevent this disease, people must be educated about methods of transmission, ways to protect their body, and be instilled with a belief in the worth and value of their lives.

Every single project being supported by Off the Mat's fund raising efforts will assist in HIV/AIDS prevention: the children's home, school library, Earthchild classroom, and GOLD mentoring program will all help the children of District 6 in Cape Town to foster healthy choices and knowledge of self care and prevention. The halfway house will give a safe and supportive environment to those struggling with addiction to prevent needle transmission. The bakery will employ those adults in the halfway home and feed the children in the children's homes. These projects are all aimed at creating a more long-term effective solution and providing a healthy outlook for generations of Cape Town's youth. And we will ALL have a healthier, happier world as a result. Win, win, win, win, win.

If you are blessed today with life, with health, and with the abundance to give SOMETHING toward this cause, of any amount, please know in the depths of your heart that you have made a CONTRIBUTION, and are helping to create a better, safer, more vibrant and alive world. Thank you, and Namaste.