This Friday, December 1, is World AIDS Day. Two years ago, a doctor in Markham, Ontario challenged the doctors at her hospital to donate a day’s pay to AIDS charity. Fifty doctors rose to the challenge. The next year the word had spread to eight hospitals, and this year they are extending the challenge to everyone. Click here to find out more.
If you have a steady annual income, please consider giving your pay for Friday to The Stephen Lewis Foundation or to Dignitas International. Perhaps December is a tight time with other giving. I expect that if you were able to give a day’s pay later in the year, either organization would gladly receive a cheque.
The Stephen Lewis Website describes the idea behind the give a day campaign nicely. “This movement to raise funds is driven by the firm conviction that whether you live or die with HIV must not be determined by your race, gender or citizenship. This is one part of the human family responding to the broader human family. This is a day to show global solidarity, human decency and compassion.”
3 comments:
*General charity comment to follow* I think the doctor in Markham did a good thing in coming up with the day's pay concept. However, now that the intention for it to go worldwide exists, it is just another clever marketing gimmick in use by charities such as the Stephan Lewis foundation. Will other charities follow suit, a la the ribbon explosion? What isn't there a ribbon for these days? How corporate has that watered-down idea become? The charity is all but lost in the advertising shuffle. It would be nice if for once a charity would operate without these ridiculous gimmicks - by appealing to my brain and not to my chocolate heart. Tell me why AIDS deserves my money over some other charity. Prove to me that the charity is effective and efficient. Don't just think up "the latest marketing gimmick" and throw out a couple of predictible, shallow, utterly meaningless phrases like, "This is one part of the human family responding to the broader human family" and "This is a day to show global solidarity, human decency and compassion."
Hey Burr. I can understand your distaste of the quote. The part that I liked was that the fundraising idea "is driven by the firm conviction that whether you live or die with HIV must not be determined by your race, gender or citizenship." Right now those three factors play a big role in determining whether you get HIV and also what sort of treatment you receive for it.
As for the "ribbon explosion," I don't see that as a corporate thing. The rubber bracelettes are more commercialized, that's for sure. A year and a half ago you could even buy knock-off yellow Armstrong-esque bracelettes in dollar stores. Red, pink or white ribbons are much less common. I think they are given as an after-thought when you donate to their respective causes.
Hi I, thank-you for responding. I also had a bit of trouble with the bit you quoted above. While it is true that no one deserves to live in an AIDS-riddled country, surely the idea of equalizing treatments across all AIDS sufferers must seem ludicrous, at present. While the cost of necessary treatment drugs has come down, just getting the drugs to the people who need them is a logistical nightmare. It would cost huge amounts of money that would have to come out of the pockets of AIDS sufferers in first world countries (is this okay?). I think money is better spent at this time on research (not all of it, of course, just more). I'd rather see a cure come 50 years sooner than see a slight reduction in suffering today. Then again, for all I know, the cure may not exist and in that case, putting money into research would be a mistake. But we should try, instead of spreading ourselves too thin trying to treat all AIDS sufferers as we do any first world citizen. I don't have a problem with what the quote says; I'm just not sure that strictly following its advice is the best thing to do right now.
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