Ohio University students will have the opportunity to view the AIDS Memorial Quilt, get tested for HIV and hear from an AIDS activist during HIV/AIDS Awareness Week.
The week-long event is sponsored by Promoting Ohio University Wellness Education and Responsibility, OU's peer health education group. Beginning today, a panel of the AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display in Baker University Center. The quilt was created by The NAMES Project Foundation in 1987 and memorializes the lives of those who have died of HIV/AIDS.
Kristina Rose, graduate adviser for POWER, said the quilt in Baker Center has patches made by those who died of HIV/AIDS and those who have lost friends and family, some of whom were from Ohio.
It's a way to commemorate those who have died from complications of HIV/AIDS
Rose said. It's a visual reminder of the pain that so many have felt.
HIV is a virus, often spread through sexual contact, syringes and from mother to child, that weakens the body's immune system and can cause AIDS. Rose said there is a generational difference in how the risk of AIDS is perceived.
This generation of students is desensitized to the subject of AIDS. College-aged students grow up hearing about AIDS awareness - many feel that it simply won't happen to them Rose said. It's important to keep putting out the message that AIDS is real and that anyone could potentially be affected.
Unified Sisters, an all-female OU student organization that promotes personal development, helped fund the week's keynote speaker, Hydeia Broadbent.
Krystal Stodghill, president of Unified Sisters, said she hopes Broadbent's speech will serve as a wake-up call to those who don't feel they could be affected by AIDS.
(Broadbent) is our age and has AIDS. This is real and relatable Stodghill said. This will make people stop and think
'Wow
this could happen to me.'
In 2008, 589 15-to-24-year olds in Ohio were living with HIV, according to the Ohio Department of Health HIV/AIDS Surveillance Program.
Jessica Regas, a senior studying health services administration and intern for the Campus Involvement Center, said although no one likes to think about the possibility of contracting HIV, it's a reality all college students face.
AIDS doesn't discriminate. We have the tendency to think that it won't happen to us
and it can
Regas said. If you've been sexually active in any way
then it's important to know the risks.
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