World AIDS Day is December 1st

By now, I’m sure you’re all aware World AIDS Day is today. If this is the first you’re hearing of it, I’m certain you must live under a rock. But I’m glad you’ve finally joined the rest of us. Welcome.

The World Health Organization (WHO) website tells me that between 2011 and 2015, the overarching theme of World AIDS Day is “Getting to zero: Zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS related deaths.” The picture above, which uses that same language, is from my trip to Kenya last summer when I attended the Kisumu Agricultural Show. Here, several organizations, health-related and otherwise, set up booths to inform people about their goals and objectives, sometimes even their products.

I went to the show with the Kisumu Initiative for Positive Empowerment (KIPE), which is a small organization dedicated to helping men living with HIV, and this is where our own booth was located. We were distributing materials like informational pamphlets, condoms, and lubricants, and we were telling passersby about AIDS.

AIDS is like one of those scary monsters we were told about when we were young. You know, the ones we thought were hiding under our beds or in our closets. Except unlike those monsters, AIDS is very real. There are 34 million people living with HIV/AIDS around the world and more than two-thirds of them are in developing countries. A recent report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that about 60% of young people in the United States don’t even know they are infected.

World AIDS Day is all about creating awareness about problem, pushing people to find out their HIV status and pushing governments to make AIDS a priority, but it’s also about celebrating the lives of those we have lost in this battle. Wear a red ribbon today to show your support.

Baby, I’m Back!

Did you miss me?

Don’t be shy, I know you did. In fact, you missed me so much you definitely paid me a visit (or two or ten) on my personal travel blog. But you can rest easy now because, baby, I’m back.

While I was in Kenya, I did some pretty cool things like this:

and this:

But that was all secondary to my work with the Kisumu Initiative for Positive Empowerment (KIPE). My experience in Kenya was incredible, eye-opening, and inspiring, but above all, it was a reminder that the world is smaller now than it ever was and that it is possible to reach out and help those in need no matter where they are.

A Note from the Keeper

Heads up, my loyal readers!

I am taking a leave of absence.

As part of my graduate studies, I will be traveling to Kenya this summer to work with the Kisumu Initiative for Positive Empowerment (KIPE). KIPE provides much-needed services to men who have HIV/AIDS. My work will include data management and outreach. And I will be gone from May 18 until the end of July.

I expect that KIPE (and sightseeing) will keep me busy, busy, busy, and during that time, I will not be able to keep up my duties to Thaakat’s blog. I will try write up a post every so often, but nothing quite as regular as you have been used to so far. (In fact, it’s best if you don’t expect me to write anything at all, that way, any random post by me on the blog will come as an unexpected surprise. Surprises are pretty bad-ass.)

In the meantime, if you’re interested (or if you find you’ve missed me), you can check out my Kenya travel blog.

Be back in August, people.