Until There’s A Cure…Guest Post

Hello everyone!  I hope you have been having a great week.

I was planning to do a recipe post today but I thought sharing this awareness is WAY more important than food and everything else.  When Kaylynn from Until.org contacted me to do a guest post I was more than thrill to help.  Until.org is a national organization dedicated to eradicate HIV/AIDS by raising awareness and funds to combat this pandemic.  Did you know that there are more than 34 million people worldwide now live with HIV/AIDS?  3.3 million of them are under the age of 15.  Everyday nearly 7,000 people contract HIV.  After three decades of the AIDS pandemic, the cure for HIV is closer than ever before.  Please read on to see how  you can help.  I’m excited to introduce Kaylynn to you…

Hello! My name is Kaylynn, and I’m a representative from Until There’s A Cure. We’ve been graciously offered the opportunity to do a guest post on Mama in Heels. Until There’s A Cure is a nonprofit 501c3 committed to raising money to counteract the spread of HIV/AIDS. We sell bracelets, articles of clothing, and other items, most of which are made by victims of HIV/AIDS in developing countries. Ninety percent of the money raised goes back to victims across the world and to support vaccine development.

Is HIV/AIDS Relevant?

As treatment options for HIV/AIDS become more viable, it’s easy to regard it as a disease of the past, and not one that needs our attention today. However, even today over 1.8 million people die from AIDS each year.  There are over 7000 new infections every day, and around 40% of these are in people aged 15-24. About 21% of people don’t even know that they are infected.

HIV/AIDS is especially relevant to parents. Given that most people do not know their status, they can inadvertently infect their children in utero or through breastfeeding. Parents should always know their status and the status of their children. (To find a testing center near you go to: http://hivtest.cdc.gov/.)  In one heartbreaking story, a woman named Elizabeth Glaser contracted HIV in a blood transfusion and passed it on to her unborn daughter, who died when she was eight years old due to the disease.

Teenagers are the most at risk demographic for contracting the virus. It’s estimated that almost half of the undiagnosed infections are in people between the ages of 13 and 18. In comparison to the 46% of high school students who are sexually active, only 13% have been tested. As parents, it is our job to try to protect our children, both by educating them about the risks and by teaching them how to be safe.

Until There’s A Cure: Mission Statement

Until There’s A Cure® is a national organization dedicated to eradicating HIV/AIDS by raising awareness and funds to combat this pandemic.

Our dream is that no one else will become infected with HIV. For those who are HIV positive, we are dedicated on their behalf to educating all people about the virus and the overwhelming need for love and compassion in fighting this pandemic.

Our goal is to fund prevention education, care services, and vaccine development, and to increase public awareness of AIDS, using The Bracelet as the tool. The Bracelet will not only serve as a bridge to unite people to fight HIV/AIDS, but will help to increase consciousness, compassion, understanding, and responsibility.

Until There’s A Cure is committed to:

• Funding innovative programs which promote AIDS awareness and prevention education.
• Providing financial support for care and services for those living with AIDS.
• Supporting and advocating for AIDS vaccine development which offers the best hope for reducing the spread of HIV.

You can help in many ways. As a parent, the most important thing to do is to ensure that you and your family are safe. This can be done through testing and education about risks and prevention measures. As a world citizen, you can help by raising awareness for HIV/AIDS, both for support for the victims and for research into cures and prevention measures.

For more information and to support us in the fight against HIV/AIDS, please visit until.org.