Houghton College Holds World AIDS Day Events

HOUGHTON, N.Y. —With 2,000 red crosses lining the quad on the Houghton College campus for World AIDS Day, the community was reminded of just how great the HIV/AIDS epidemic has become.

According to the World Health Organization, 300 people die per hour from HIV/AIDS. The crosses represented those that had died on Friday, Nov. 30 between 5 a.m. and 11:40 a.m., the time that chapel concluded at Houghton College.

World AIDS Day events at Houghton College began with an advanced viewing of the documentary film “Miss HIV.” This film follows the journey of two HIV-positive women who enter the Miss HIV contest in Botswana.  Sharing both sides of an ideology struggle the film looks at Botswana, where half of all pregnant women have HIV, to Uganda, which has experienced the largest reductions of new infections ever recorded.

Representatives from AIDS Family Services in Buffalo, N.Y. shared in Friday’s chapel, with a benefit concert featuring Andy Zipf and a silent auction, with art work donated by Houghton College students and art faculty, held in the evening. Proceeds from the concert and auction went to AIDS Family Services.

Houghton students will also volunteer at two AIDS Family Services contacts in Buffalo on Dec. 1. Houghton students studying abroad in the Houghton in London program are also volunteering with an HIV/AIDS program in London.

World AIDS Day is observed every year on Dec. 1. The World Health Organization established World AIDS Day in 1988 to focus attention on the global AIDS epidemic. More than 1 million people in the United States and over 33.2 million worldwide are living with HIV.

Houghton student Kerry Brogan's video puts focus on getting involved in AIDS/HIV epidemic. Click here to view video.