This fall, join us in exploring how to live an active faith by rallying your local group around an issue most urgent to the world’s poor – AIDS, Malaria, Microloans, and Trafficking. For each issue, we’ll explore how faith and justice are interconnected while working together to reach an audacious goal. Here’s a glimpse of one of those issues:

AIDS first appeared in Africa in 1982. Today over twenty-two million people in Sub-Saharan Africa live with HIV or AIDS.  Numbers like this can be daunting, but it is encouraging to see how changes in science and technology have brought about possibilities for effective treatments.  Likewise, more organizations and advocacy groups have stepped forward to care for people living with AIDS and provide education about the disease.

Despite the positive changes in treatment and awareness, many cultures still hold a stigma and shame with AIDS, meaning that those infected with the disease are often ostracized from their community and denied the resources they need to live. AIDS not only causes physical pain and suffering, but also has an emotional impact, for many people are left to suffer and die alone. Fortunately, there are thousands of individuals who have chosen to set aside these cultural views and give care to people living with AIDS. From providing food and bandaging sores to helping with laundry and watching children, these caregivers aren’t filling just the medical need, but they are providing emotional support as well. They aren’t foreigners who have traveled thousands of miles; instead they are individuals from that community – neighbors, family members, friends. It is a way to remind someone with AIDS that they are valued and they are not alone.

Through World Vision’s caregiver kit program, over 77,000 AIDS caregivers have been provided with resources and training, equipping them to offer in-home care for more people in their communities.

Many of us will never have the opportunity to travel to Zambia and physically care for someone with AIDS. However, we can pull together our resources and build the kits that will be in the hands of World Vision’s caregivers. We are joining together to support more caregivers than ever this year and to advocate for AIDS awareness. Let’s continue to show love to those in need by collaborating to make kits and support those on the frontlines.

Are you passionate about supporting those on the frontline against HIV and AIDS? Sign up to rally your local group below. We’ll then equip you with free resources to connect faith and justice, connect you with a larger community of groups and issue experts who are exploring how faith and justice are interconnected, and ultimately work together to ignite movements.