My wife said "Honey, you need to lighten up a little on your blog". I thought for a minute...well, OK but how do you lighten these subjects ? I'm still working on that one and I'll let you know when I come up with something. I feel impassioned and have a stirring in my soul over the things that most people seem to blindly accept as "them, not me". The fact is I am my brothers keeper no matter where in the world they may live. We live in such a self centered, self created false reality that we cannot grasp the immensity of the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa. It's not personal to us. It's sad, just not personal. We feel small and insignificant in the face of the cruelty of this disease. "Where is God ?" many people ask. I can tell you He is in the same place He always has been and will be. No one is spared. It's killing without respect to anyone or anything. It is truly an equal opportunity destroyer. It is destroying families and entire generations. But, more importantly, it is destroying the hope of future generations who are now children and at risk of never seeing their teen years. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most affected region in the global AIDS epidemic. More than two thirds (68%) of all people HIV-positive live in this region where more than three quarters (76%) of all AIDS deaths in 2007 occurred. It is estimated that 1.7 million [1.4 million–2.4 million] people were newly infected with HIV in 2007, bringing to 22.5 million [20.9 million–24.3 million] the total number of people living with the virus. Unlike other regions, the majority of people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa (61%) are women. The scale and trends of the epidemics in the region vary considerably, with southern Africa most seriously affected. This subregion accounts for 35% of all people living with HIV and almost one third (32%) of all new HIV infections and AIDS deaths globally in 2007. National adult HIV prevalence exceeded 15% in eight countries in 2005 (Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe). While there is evidence of a significant decline in the national HIV prevalence in Zimbabwe, the epidemics in most of the rest of the subregion have either reached or are approaching a plateau. Only in Mozambique latest HIV data (in2005) have shown an increase in prevalence over the previous surveillance period. Globally, 2.3 million children are living with HIV. In 2005, around 380,000 children died of AIDS and 540,000 children got newly infected. Over 15 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Right now in Kenya, about 1.8 million children have been orphaned, left bewildered and on their own as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. There were 11.4 million orphans in sub-Saharan Africa (2007) - 9% of whom have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS, 3.7 million orphans in South Africa (2006) - 49% of whom have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS, the number of AIDS orphans by 2010 is expected to be 15.7 in sub-Saharan Africa. Every day over 6,800 people become infected and over 5,700 people die.Young people, under the age of 25, account for half of all new HIV infections worldwide - this is 6,000 every day. Ok, am I boring you with all these numbers ?? Please understand, these are NOT numbers and statistics. They are our children and our brothers and sisters. Is this acceptable to you ???