 A week after world AIDS day I am left with mixed feelings. I love the way everybody comes together, helping, sharing, and working together for the events to be successful. The atmosphere seems special at events like the candlelit vigil, or the service at Holy Trinity. Events like MUSICAID seemed to bring the community together. My mixed feelings stem from, raising awareness and giving out red ribbons. Many people did not want to know, they refused ribbons - this disease does not effect them. This makes me feel really sad, I feel like shouting “look at the figures world wide, look at the people I meet every day, coping with prejudices and fear”.
I
am left feeling that there is a degree of complacency about HIV and AIDS. People do not think it will affect their world, and it is such a shock when it does. I also realise that most people reading this article are HIV aware and do realise that it affects us all.
So,
back to last week. It was a mixture of celebration, remembrance, reflecting, awareness raising, and enjoyment. I do feel next year we need to spell out what the red ribbon symbolises. Too many people seem frightened to wear one, unsure what it says about them. I think it will be harder to put over to them how this disease affects us all.
I
do feel that some people worked really hard. They put such effort into the events and thanks to them, they were a success. It was a good week, full of variety and only 51 weeks to go until the millennium world AIDS day. 
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