World AIDS Day, December 1 2009

Watch the slideshow of why JSI staff are Facing AIDS.

World AIDS Day is an opportunity for all of us to work together to increase AIDS awareness, help reduce stigma, and promote education. World AIDS Day is also the occasion to recognize the millions of people around the world who have been impacted by the AIDS epidemic.

The fight against HIV remains a tangible challenge; millions of people are still affected every day across the planet. Worldwide the estimated number of people living with HIV is over 33 million and more than one million people are HIV positive in the U.S.

This World AIDS Day, JSI joins peers and global leaders in a pledge to work toward universal access to HIV & AIDS prevention, treatment, and care. We recognize that access to HIV and AIDS services is an essential human right, yet many millions around the world continue to go without the prevention information or care services they need. Moreover, discrimination continues to fuel the epidemic, both in the US and abroad.

Read the Joint World AIDS Day Community Statement that JSI and 38 other organizations have released as a joint community statement in advance of World AIDS Day. The statement, drafted by the Global Health Council, outlines the successes, challenges and opportunities we face in the global fight against HIV and AIDS as we mark the 21st World AIDS Day. The statement outlines steps donors such as the United States and the entire global community need to take to bolster our response to the pandemic.

Tseli Mohammed takes Pat Fairchild's "facing AIDS" photo in support of aids.gov's World AIDS Day social media photo project at a recent JSI event.

Through the AIDS.gov project, JSI is working to reduce HIV-related stigma and promote HIV testing by supporting the Facing AIDS for World AIDS Day campaign. The campaign asks people to take photos of themselves stating how they are facing AIDS. Over 50 JSI staff participated in this initiative—our slideshow presents a few of the folks who are facing AIDS in teams, on projects, as individuals, in life, TOGETHER.

To learn more and join AIDS.gov in this endeavor, please visit http://www.aids.gov/world-aids-day. You can check out all of the photos from the campaign on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/facingaids/