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Vigil lights night with hope By Marissa Freireich ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
Students gathered at the fountain in front of Old Main last night for a candlelight vigil in honor of World AIDS Day. The vigil, jointly hosted by the UA Student National Medical Association and the American Medical Students Association, included an acrobatic yoga performance, harp music, a meditation and poems and stories from HIV patients. “We wanted something more quiet and mellow to give people time to reflect on what’s going on,” said Chinenye Anako , a second-year medical school student and World AIDS Week coordinator. To start the vigil, the yoga performers did a routine to a song using their arms and legs to hold one another in various poses. “By displaying how we support each other, we can also display how we support HIV community,” said Emily Wilkinson, a second-year medical student and co-chair of the Global Health Forum. “There’s still a lot of stigma associated with it,” she said. “It’s not a problem we solved.” Participants read stories taken from students’ experiences working with HIV patients in the community as well as from online resources. The stories ranged from a middle-aged single mom to a young South African woman to a grandmother. Though these people have faced and still do face grave challenges, they shared a surprising optimism and overall acceptance of their disease. Expressions such as “I am so happy to be alive” and “I like me” were shared in the stories. Candles that spelled out HIV and AIDS were placed on either side of the fountain. At the conclusion of the ceremony, participants placed their candles between the ones that spelled out HIV and AIDS to show the link between the two. “We want to remember people who are going through life with this illness,” Anako said. Shreya Patel, a second-year medical student and co-chair of the Global Health Forum, stressed the significance of the vigil. “I thought it was really beautiful,” she said. “And it was really great for us who live in such a fortunate, developed country and aren’t really touched by HIV typically too often … to take a second and think about people who might be touched by it every day.”
Loneliness can spread through social networks CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Gordon Bates/Arizona Daily Wildcat
A candlelight vigil was held in front of Old Main last night from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. to help the community recognize the social aspects of AIDS and HIV as well as the lives that the disease has affected.
CHICAGO —You’re lonely and ill at ease. A friend says something you feel is mean-spirited and you tell her she’s being unkind. Next time you talk, it’s awkward. Gradually, you drift apart. Without knowing it, you’ve transmitted loneliness — a sense of social disconnection. But it doesn’t stop there: Your friend is more likely to convey this uncomfortable feeling to someone else, who in turn may spread it to yet another person. So it goes in social networks, according to new research by John Cacioppo, director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago. Unwittingly, we pass feelings to others — whether in person, on the phone or online — and influence the pattern of human connections surrounding us. Previous studies have found that obesity, smoking and happiness can spread from person to person. Cacioppo’s research, published Tuesday in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, shows that loneliness also has this social dimension. Analyzing decades of data from the Framingham Heart Study, he found that individuals who feel isolated are more likely to lose friends over time. Women pick up a feeling of loneliness more readily from friends than do men. Ultimately, loneliness is a biological signal like hunger or thirst, Cacioppo argues. It tells people they’re not sufficiently connected and that they need to re-establish human bonds. At the same time, it’s an emotional irritant that can make us uncomfortable and hard to reach. Often, friends just stop trying. This holiday season there will be many lonely people among us. To them, we can be kind. “Expect the best of people,” Cacioppo says, noting that we get what we give in human relationships.
Artists unite to bring AIDS awareness Hotel Congress hosts local performers to support those affected by virus By Will Ferguson ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
Gordon Bates/Arizona Daily Wildcat
Hotel Congress hosts an evening performance as part of World AIDS Week. Many people gathered here last night to spread awareness of the impact AIDS and HIV have on those infected with the virus and their families.
The second annual World AIDS Day at Hotel Congress featured an eclectic mix of performers in support of AIDS awareness from 4 p.m.-11 p.m. Ranging from hair metal cover band Metalhead to the hip hop dance crew The Human Project, all of the performers had one thing in common. “There are many people in our community who suffer from AIDS, and we came down here to support them,” said Anton Smith , the director of The Human Project. UA Dance alumni Claire Hancock and Ashley Bowman gave a performance on behalf of the Art. if.Act Dance Project in order to raise awareness for the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation. “We are here to raise awareness for our future benefit, ‘In the RED,’” said Hancock. In addition to performances from multiple groups, World AIDS Day provided an opportunity for groups like the Prevention Services
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Department at the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation to educate AIDS Day participants on preventative measures and general information. SAAF provides multiple educational programs to help those affected with HIV/AIDS and those who are at risk. “We are all in this together,” said Sue Whiteside, an organizer for SAAF. Whiteside said the goal of SAAF is to address the needs of those at risk for HIV/AIDS from a holistic perspective. “I lost some close friends to AIDS, and I felt participating in this was the right thing to do,” she said. Heather Moroso, executive director of Positively Beautiful, an organization that helps women who are at risk or affected by HIV/AIDS, said she is trying to raise awareness in the heterosexual community. “While HIV shows no discrimination, neither should prevention,” she said. Morose said approximately 25 percent of women with HIV/AIDS are unaware and that getting tested is the best means of prevention.
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