wfn.org | World AIDS Day

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
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Note 453 by UMNS on Nov. 12, 1997 at 16:49 Eastern (3430 characters).

CONTACT: Linda Bloom					641(10-28-71B){453}
		New York (212) 870-3803				 Nov. 12, 1997

World AIDS Day
focuses on children

			by United Methodist News Service

	When Richard Cory's son, Alex, was seven years old, he asked his father if he
had AIDS.
	"I have made it a point never to lie to my son, so I told him he did," Cory,
a United Methodist from Chesapeake, Va., recalled recently. "It was one of the
hardest things I have ever had to do."
	Alex, now 11, is one of the estimated one million children under the age of
15 who are living with HIV. They are the focus of this year's World AIDS Day
on Dec. 1.
	The 1996 United Methodist General Conference, the denomination's top
legislative body, passed a resolution encouraging its members to observe World
AIDS Day each year.
	They are encouraged to organize special programs on HIV/AIDS education,
conduct worship services focusing on intercessory and healing prayer, hope in
God and love and compassion and collect offerings for the Advance Special for
HIV/AIDS Ministries, No. 982215-6.
	Cory's account of his "Life with Alex" can be found on the United Methodist
Board of Global Ministries web site (http://gbgm.umc.org). He also is the
parent's discussion forum operator on the Computerized AIDS Ministries
Bulletin Board, a ministry of the board's Health and Relief Unit.
	Cory's wife, Catherine, unknowingly was infected with HIV from a blood
transfusion she was given after Alex's birth. It is presumed that Alex was
infected when she breast-fed him.
	Since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, according to the World Health
Organization, well over two million HIV-infected children under the age of 15
have been born to HIV-infected mothers and hundreds of thousands of children
have acquired the virus from blood transfusions or through sex.
	Because the infection often progresses quickly to full-blown AIDS in
children, many of those infected already have died. In 1996, for example,
350,000 of the 1.5 million people who died of AIDS were children under the age
of 15.
	Until recent hospitalizations, Alex has had a "fairly normal" childhood,
according to Cory. But he and his wife had to deal with ignorance and hatred
because of his HIV status, including the fact that Alex was refused admission
to several day care centers and two different schools, one run by a Catholic
church and the other by a Protestant church.
	Cory believes the community of faith needs to respond to the HIV/AIDS crisis
by providing both practical and frank education on the risk behaviors
associated with infection and the spiritual support needed for a meaningful
life.
	"Though the church may not be able to save the lives of these people, they
certainly can provide a source of spiritual support that could lead them to an
even greater gift ... the gift of faith that could lead to eternal life," Cory
writes in "Life with Alex."
	Cory's own faith was restored after a nearly 20-year absence from the church.
"The example set by people ministering to my family as we learned to live with
AIDS has led me back to God," he writes. "I know this is the greatest gift I
could receive and, I know now, that this is the greatest gift I have to
offer."
	Materials for World AIDS Day are available each year from the World Health
Organization, the Board of Global Ministries' Health and Relief Unit and the
United Methodist Board of Church and Society.
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