WORLD AIDS DAY 2009 Project

World AIDS Day 2009 will be held December 1, 2009. The theme this year is "Universal Access and Human Rights".



From the AVERT web site:

<sub>Started on 1st December 1988, World AIDS Day is about raising money, increasing awareness, fighting prejudice and improving education. The World AIDS Day theme for 2009 is 'Universal Access and Human Rights'. World AIDS Day is important in reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still to be done.

According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 33.2 million people living with HIV, including 2.5 million children. During 2007 some 2.5 million people became newly infected with the virus. Around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are 35.

Around 95% of people with HIV and AIDS live in developing nations. But HIV today is a threat to men, women and children on all continents around the world.</sub>

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I invite you to take part in a project that I am hosting in honor of World AIDS Day 2009. Why am I hosting this? It is near and dear to my heart.

My uncle was told he was HIV+ in 1990, and lived for 6 years after being told this. He died in June 1996, two months after my wedding. He had attended my wedding but was very sick, and two months later almost to the day he walked himself into a hospital, and never walked out. I didn't get to see him before he died, my wedding was the last time I saw him alive. I can't even begin to tell you how much my uncle meant to me, he was an ever present part of my life since I was a child, and it devastated me to lose him to AIDS. Of course officially they wrote he died of pneumonia, and listed AIDS second or third on the death certificate, but AIDS is what killed this very good and beautiful man.


_{This is a photo taken of me and my uncle at my wedding, the last time I saw him alive.}

I have always been too broken up about losing him to do anything in his memory publicly, though I did name my first son after him in memory. I've lost friends because I have had someone die of AIDS in my family. People thought I should keep it quiet. But I am a stronger woman today than I've ever been and it is time for me to lend my support to AIDS research to help someone else's beloved uncle, or anyone else, to find the cure for this killer disease.

The above quote from AVERT says 95% of people with AIDS live in developing nations, but this was not a fact in the 90's and I know many that died of AIDS including my beloved uncle. I do this in his memory, RIP Jimmy Ray McClure Jones.

THE PROJECT - AIDS Charity Book

I have been a member of deviantART for over five years and I am constantly overwhelmed by the amount of talent on this site. It is heartwarming and challenges me each and every day to be better. What I would like to do is to ask you, the amazing artists of dA, to submit whatever you do best - whether it be traditional art, digital art, photography, photomanipulation, prose or poetry - and let me compile a charity book whose proceeds will go directly to AVERT, an international AIDS charity (find them here: [link]). Depending on how many participate, I will choose the submissions to be included in the book.



Your piece of art (and yes I consider literature to be art as well) should follow the theme of World AIDS Day - or be somehow related to AIDS. Red ribbons are beautiful things. Your creativity is a must, whether it is simple or more involved.

Do a search for AIDS on dA and you'll find a lot of inspiration: [link]

Here's a few to inspire you:



Project Guidelines

Start Date: October 1, 2009
End Date: December 1, 2009 - World AIDS Day
Art must be about in some way, shape or form AIDS
Mediums that will be accepted include traditional art, digital art, photography, photomanipulation and short literature
Send thumbs to =druideye in a note to be collected
Label note "AIDS Submission" IMPORTANT
No limit on submissions
Entry does not have to be new, but new art is encouraged
I will choose which submissions will be included in the full color book
Everyone will be given the opportunity to purchase the full color book whose proceeds will go to AVERT, an international AIDS charity. I will not take ANY proceeds for myself for hosting and putting this together.
I will keep an up to date list on my journals of how much is being donated to AVERT.
- I will be having a contest for the front cover of the book, the winner will receive a free copy of the book.

If you have any questions or would like to contact me, feel free to do so at =druideye.

THANK YOU for taking the time to read my story and about this project, and please take a little more time to make an entry (or seven!) and submit. I also would LOVE LOVE LOVE for you to advertise this project in your journals and in your clubs and communities.

Pamela
druideye

Please give love to the makers of the great stamps I've used in this article.

I love you and miss you deeply, Uncle Bebo.