Day 6: MDG 6 - Combat HIV/Aids, Malaria and other diseases

www.justgiving.com/dennis-marcus


First of all - I must apologise to the many many many people who were doubtlessly waiting with bated breath on their Friday night for my blog. But after work I must admit I was just too exhausted to write anything. That's what's really hit me in the last couple of days- there's an inability to focus properly; so it's taken by about one and a half times as long to do the same quantity of work - just as well that I'm such a workaholic!


So fantastic news - the total raised is now at £1600 - which is fantastic for six full days of fund-raising. So thank you so much to all of those who have contributed so far - and if you haven't yet .... please do!


So to today's (yesterday's) topic:

MDG 6 - Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases


So let's start off with some fantastic news, reported yesterday on the BBC: 
"Sub-Saharan Africa leads global decline in new HIV cases". So there has clearly been progress to celebrate, but again there is a need to accelerate our efforts: this is only a decline in new cases - leaving much work still to do.


I think that everyone is aware of the huge death toll of the diseases that are common across areas where extreme poverty is pervasive. But can we even truly understand what statistics in the millions really mean?! I'm not sure we can.


One statistic that always gets me is that one child dies every three seconds of diseases we know how to prevent and treat. Or as I've sometimes described it - think of your time at school or university. Your seminar groups or classes would probably have been about twenty strong. You know the people - you know their names, some of them might be friends and some of them you may never see again - but you know them. Well - diseases we know how to prevent and treat kill a class or seminar group every single minute of the day. And that's just children.


Then think of the impact of those people dying on their communities - it comes in so many forms it's breathtaking:

• the bereavement itself
• children whose parents die not only have to contend with losing that influence and support in their lives but may also have to drop out of school to earn enough money to survive - blighting any prospect for the future 
• businesses lose skilled and trained workers on a regular basis - driving up the costs of running businesses as more people have to be trained, so proving another element restricting potential for prosperity
• medical costs reduce a family's budget massively
• schools lose teachers
• communities lose leaders

And the list could go on and on...


So this is an issue of central importance to lifting communities out of extreme poverty. This brilliant half hour film (sourced as ever faithfully from the brilliant people at the Global Poverty Project) outlines some of the work that's taking place around the world to combat HIV. I know it's long - but trust me - it's well worth watching