Stephen Lewis Speech at Focus Africa
Last night I attended Stephen Lewis' speech at the Hillel of Greater Toronto's Focus Africa event.
Mr. Lewis is a passionate, powerful and informative speaker (as one would hope for one of the world's most influential people). As the UN Special Envoy for Aids, his focus was on the appalling situation in Africa and the Developed World's betrayal of the 3rd World in the face of the AIDS tragedy.
Among the most pertinent facts - There are 28 million people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa, a staggering 60% of them are women. Of the 8 million people between the ages of 15 and 24 living with HIV/AIDS in Africa, 76% are women and girls.
It's astonishing to think that women die in such vastly disproportionate numbers and one can only imagine the chaos created in the social fabric of these societies as children are left to organize their own households.
Mr. Lewis is a passionate, powerful and informative speaker (as one would hope for one of the world's most influential people). As the UN Special Envoy for Aids, his focus was on the appalling situation in Africa and the Developed World's betrayal of the 3rd World in the face of the AIDS tragedy.
Among the most pertinent facts - There are 28 million people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa, a staggering 60% of them are women. Of the 8 million people between the ages of 15 and 24 living with HIV/AIDS in Africa, 76% are women and girls.
It's astonishing to think that women die in such vastly disproportionate numbers and one can only imagine the chaos created in the social fabric of these societies as children are left to organize their own households.
1 Comments:
He also said something else that was quite startling. Apprently, cows in the developing world are subsidised $2 a day whereas most people in Africa live on less than $1 a day. Unbelievable.
By amandalilja, At 7:18 PM
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