Today is World Aids Day. The day when we stop to consider this virus and what it is doing to our world. Here in Nakuru, Kenya it is wreaking 
major havoc.
Despite all the awareness campaign's going on, a good number of people still do not know the basic facts of this disease. We continue to encounter young men and women who do not know you can contract HIV by having unprotected sex with an infected partner. We still meet people who believe that as long as you are not sick then you are o.k. We still meet people who believe that there is a cure for HIV/AIDS. We still meet people who know nothing at all about HIV.
How is this possible? With all the millions spent on awareness campaigns? How can so many still be so ignorant?
I believe the answer lies in relationships. I can pass a billboard, or listen to a radio ad, or see a t.v. ad without ever paying attention to it. (Those are the principal ways that money is spent on teaching people about HIV.) However it would be hard for me to pass a friend by without paying attention.
We can teach people about HIV if we do so from a relationship point of view. If I teach my friends, then they teach their friends, we would have less people ignorant. This is a case where the scripture is fulfilled, "My people perish for lack of knowledge."
Johnny Brooks
Missionary to Nakuru, Kenya. Co-founder of A Future and a Hope, a home for girls.
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