AIDS education marches to campus

Students across campus today will gather together in support of
World AIDS Day, participating in a march, a rally and other events
intended to educate students on HIV/AIDS.

Last year, World AIDS Day focused on HIV/AIDS within the UCLA
community and greater Los Angeles area and marked the launch of the
“I Know and Knowledge is Power” campaign. The events
today will focus on the HIV/AIDS epidemic within sub-Saharan
Africa.

“We want to educate the UCLA community that this is
something that is devastating the world, but also bring it back to
Los Angeles,” said Adam Stern, a fourth-year World Arts and
Cultures student.

Stern, who is also a UCLA AIDS Institute ambassador, hopes the
event will educate students on the prevalence of the disease, as
well as distinguish the differences between the epidemic within
various African countries.

“The media likes to paint a picture of AIDS in Africa as
if it were one big country. But it’s not just AIDS in Africa;
it’s AIDS in Tanzania, in South Africa, in Ghana,” he
said. “They talk about Africa like it’s California,
when it’s actually a huge continent.”

Starting at 11:30 a.m., the march will take place at three
different locations ““ DeNeve Plaza, Schoenberg Plaza, and the
Court of Sciences. Students meeting at these locations will each be
given an “I Know ““ Knowledge is Power” T-shirt
and will proceed to Bruin Plaza, where all three locations will
converge at noon.

The march will also incorporate aspects of African culture. Iddi
Saaka, an alumnus of the WAC department and current lecturer within
that department, leads Gonja Dreams, a musical group that
incorporates drumming from various African communities. The
ensemble will accompany the students marching in to Bruin Plaza,
where Stern’s band, The Grizzly Peak, will also perform.

The rally will include music, guest speakers from Students for
International Change, and call-ins to legislators.

Jenny Wood, president of the Undergraduate Students Association
Council and a UCLA AIDS Institute ambassador, has coordinated the
calling of several legislators during the rally and throughout the
day to gain support for microbicides, a product currently under
development. Microbicides include a range of products such as
topical creams and gels that prevent the spread of HIV through
sexual transmission. In this way, the spread of HIV/AIDS can be
prevented without the use of condoms.

“There are so many socioeconomic factors that play into
spreading this disease, and condoms are stigmatized in various
countries,” Wood said.

At Bruin Plaza, students will also be placing their handprints
on several banners.

“By putting a handprint on the banners, you make a promise
to know ““ to know your status, to know how to help
others,” said Ragini Sarma, a third-year biology student and
member of the Student Welfare Commission, the group directing the
banner event. “By taking this pledge, or promising to get
tested, that is how students can take initiative.”

World AIDS Day is organized mainly by student organizations,
most prominently the AIDS Institute Ambassadors, the Student
Welfare Commission, the AIDS Awareness Committee, Dance Marathon
and Students for International Change. Other groups that will
participate in the events throughout the day are the UCLA AIDS
Institute and Department of World Arts and Cultures.

Along with the march and rally, students will have the
opportunity to attend several other events coordinated throughout
campus. A Film and Television Archives display, focusing on the
evolution of the AIDS epidemic, will be shown in Powell Library
from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Workshops geared toward educating students
on the epidemic, led by Students for International Change, will
begin at 1 p.m. in the John Wooden Center. At 4 p.m., the
Department of World Arts and Cultures will hold an HIV/AIDS
symposium in the Gloria Kaufman Hall. Kerckhoff Art Gallery will
have a quilt created by families of AIDS victims on display today
and Friday.

The goal of all the student groups involved is to educate the
UCLA community on both the spread of HIV/AIDS throughout the world
and within the local areas.

“Students don’t know how big this disease is in
other parts of the world,” Sarma said. “You hear about
it, you see it on television, but the message isn’t as
clear.”

Along with educating students on the epidemic, students involved
want to bring the discussion of HIV/AIDS in a more positive
direction, toward preventative measures and awareness.

“We need to change the conversation to how people are
living with AIDS, instead of how people are dying,” Stern
said.