Join Red on World AIDS Day

December 1 is World AIDS Day and I am sorry if you did not know that cause some of us are one day type of people. We know we should celebrate each other every day but we show it on birthdays or Valentine's Day. We should love our parents each second of their lives but we bring out the presents and pampering on Mother's Day and Father's Day. We have commercialised Christmas to the point where maybe even Jesus needs to ask for an invitation so will not comment too much about this. But you get my point. We are one day people. So if you are a one-day person and still did not know December 1 is World AIDS Day then that is tragic. It is doubly tragic because this is not a one-day type of disease. It is not just one day we should recognise the efforts of those who are working to either find a cure, educate those who need to be educated on the epidemic,  eliminate stigmatisation of the disease and victimisation of the infected, or merely supporting those who have been directly and indirectly impacted by HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS is a 365 day, and in a leap year, 366 day, 24/7 phenomenon which we need to pay urgent attention to.

And don't leave it to your local leaders or your doctors or your social workers to make a difference. You can make a difference through simple acts.

- Wear a condom. Wrap it up. Ladies, don't depend on the man to walk with the latex either. We can vote, we can run countries, we can take over the world, so dammit, we can buy our own condoms and keep them in our purse.
- Be faithful. The swinging lives of our youth, the reclaimed lives of our middle ages, and even in our second spring should not have to be reckless.
- Abstinence, the word, the concept, often generates laughter and ridicule but if you can, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
- Support an NGO. Support those who work so tirelessly to support those families affected by HIV/AIDS. Volunteer at a clinic or assist in an outreach programme.
- Educate yourself. Educate your loved ones. Educate strangers. Don't leave it to social programmes to get the word out. We are all part of this massive social undertaking to eradicate HIV/AIDS. So why leave it to chance? Why hope that the local systems will touch that life today, when it may be so under-resourced that it may not get to that life until it is too late.
- Stop the hate. Ignorance and discrimination hinder education. The "that cannot happen to me" and "she was promiscuous, she look for that" mentality will not help us, but rather it will hurt us. You cannot get it from showing basic human decency to another.

I did not mean to make this so long and I meant to really just show how social media can be harnessed in a powerful way but I think you guys know this already. I meant to just share some retweets from @JoinRed. But you know what you have to do. So just do it. Don't just turn Twitter red. Don't just turn Facebook red. Make a difference in your community. Make a change in your own life. Be the change you want to see.

@Join Red. (www.twitter.com/joinred)

RT: It costs around 40 cents a day for the 2 pills that are needed to help keep someone with HIV alive. Pls watch & RT. http://budurl.com/twlaz
RT: 33mm people in world have HIV. 22mm live in Africa. Help fight AIDS in Africa. Turn Twitter #red. Pls RT.What do an Irishman, an Italian, an Englishman, a Brazilian, a South Korean & an Ivorian share in common? A: Laces http://twitpic.com/rllyr

And on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/joinred

And the blog: http://blog.joinred.com/