Our Next Mission: India 2007

About India

For our international grassroots mission in Asia this summer, we have chosen to travel to the home of the world’s most populous democracy, the beautiful land of India. India has for a long time now, had the most HIV and AIDS cases in Asia. With ever-increasing annual rates of infections, it has recently surpassed South Africa to be the most AIDS-victimized country in the world. In fact, ten percent of the world’s HIV population lives in India.

To illustrate the ongoing growth of the AIDS pandemic, the Indian National AIDS Control Organization estimated that in 2005, 5.21 million people in the country were living with HIV. But by the end of 2005, India had 5.7 Million HIV victims, according to a UNAIDS report. Upon doing the math, you’ll find that this is an increase of almost an unbelievable half of a million people, in only one year!

India Mission 2007

India Mission 2007, we will be continuing with the goals and challenges of our previous mission to South Africa, but will also expand on these goals. Such goals have included providing children and youth with the opportunity to engage actively in sporting and arts activities, providing HIV and AIDS education & prevention, and giving them the confidence and counseling to gain leadership skills to further improve their lives. We have extended these goals by choosing to go to India in order to increase our reach in spreading the awareness of AIDS as a disease that is spreading throughout the world. We believe that attention needs to be brought to areas where help is desperately needed…