HIV / AIDS Epidemic

As a young adult I am grateful for being able to wake up every morning and go to school and live a normal life, however, many youth within the world cannot. Today alone, 6500 people will be infected with HIV and out of the 2.5 million people infected yearly 40% of them are youth ages 15-24. As someone who is in between that age bracket I can’t fathom how devastating it would be to find out that I was HIV positive. Thankfully I am educated about HIV/Aids prevention and I can take the precautions necessary to keep myself safe, however many people in the world don’t have the basic knowledge of HIV prevention and that lack of knowledge sometimes ends up costing them their life. As a young leader in my community I have gotten many opportunities to raise awareness of HIV/Aids throughout my school and city, however I believe my voice can go beyond that and hopefully I can spread awareness about this concerning issue throughout the world. Today, 11.5 million children have been orphaned by AIDS, without the proper knowledge and resources this epidemic will continue to rise. It is my job as a member of our global community, it is my job to stop being silent, raises my voice, and spread knowledge and education about this concerning epidemic. Hopefully with this chance I will be able to, and with the help from DOC and Free The Children my voice can be heard and hopefully impact thousands of lives.

Sharmarke Ismail