2008 Woodie Awards
Student nurses make impact on HIV
Kenyan activist inspires UCF students
Jillian Krotki
Issue date: 6/23/08 Section: News
The Student Nurses Association at UCF is taking big steps to make a global impact.
After a recent visit from Chesiri, an international activist from Kenya who has been HIV positive for five years, SNA vice president Sarah Dickerman was compelled to take action.
A bill is currently stalled due to seven members of the Senate who insist the amount of money is too much. The Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008 (H.R. 5501, A. 3701) will provide $50 million over the next five years to roughly 36 million people worldwide who are suffering from HIV/AIDS and, according to the World Health Organization, one-third of these individuals are also co-infected with tuberculosis.
For the last five years, PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS relief, has provided millions of people infected with HIV/AIDS with antiretroviral treatment and care. It also helped create education and prevention programs and services. The Reauthorization Act of 2008 will allow even more progress to be made worldwide regarding treatments, research, education and awareness promotion for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. This bill will also aid people suffering from hunger and poverty.
Chesiri spoke in Diane Wink and Kelly Allred's class, which focuses on issues in health care and economics. The students have been given the tools needed to promote causes that they are passionate about. Dickerman took it upon herself to make a mission out of this stalled bill. She contacted other officers in SNA, and together they created a petition to assist in the passing of the Reauthorization Act.
"Normally, students are exposed to issues they had not been aware of previously, but I've never had a class grab at one with such enthusiasm," Wink said. "It was better than luck."
The department was contacted by RESULTS: Creating Political Will to End Hunger, the organization that sponsored Chesiri. It was a personal mission of hers to speak to people about her situation, global health care, and what the funds would do worldwide. The message was distributed throughout the faculty and the topic happened to be relevant to this class.
After a recent visit from Chesiri, an international activist from Kenya who has been HIV positive for five years, SNA vice president Sarah Dickerman was compelled to take action.
A bill is currently stalled due to seven members of the Senate who insist the amount of money is too much. The Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008 (H.R. 5501, A. 3701) will provide $50 million over the next five years to roughly 36 million people worldwide who are suffering from HIV/AIDS and, according to the World Health Organization, one-third of these individuals are also co-infected with tuberculosis.
For the last five years, PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS relief, has provided millions of people infected with HIV/AIDS with antiretroviral treatment and care. It also helped create education and prevention programs and services. The Reauthorization Act of 2008 will allow even more progress to be made worldwide regarding treatments, research, education and awareness promotion for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. This bill will also aid people suffering from hunger and poverty.
Chesiri spoke in Diane Wink and Kelly Allred's class, which focuses on issues in health care and economics. The students have been given the tools needed to promote causes that they are passionate about. Dickerman took it upon herself to make a mission out of this stalled bill. She contacted other officers in SNA, and together they created a petition to assist in the passing of the Reauthorization Act.
"Normally, students are exposed to issues they had not been aware of previously, but I've never had a class grab at one with such enthusiasm," Wink said. "It was better than luck."
The department was contacted by RESULTS: Creating Political Will to End Hunger, the organization that sponsored Chesiri. It was a personal mission of hers to speak to people about her situation, global health care, and what the funds would do worldwide. The message was distributed throughout the faculty and the topic happened to be relevant to this class.