By Alissa Dos SantosThe Daily Northwestern

Northwestern students can provide hope for people with HIV by staying informed, spreading the news and volunteering, Liz Coleclough, founder of HOPE HIV/AIDS, told about 30 students Tuesday night in University Hall.

“I want people to start caring,” the Weinberg senior said. “The epidemic is spiraling out of control.”

Coleclough said she first became interested in HIV and AIDS when she studied abroad in Zimbabwe during her junior year.

“(The patients) are not able to come here and express what is going on in Zimbabwe, what is tearing away the country,” she said.

Coleclough began her presentation by showing a sequence of black-and-white photographs of orphans suffering from the epidemic and telling the stories of several Zimbabweans who suffer from the disease.

“You have one man, he is HIV-positive and is sleeping around with many women in the community,” she said. “This is a huge thing we are trying to battle.”

An estimated 1.7 million residents of Zimbabwe suffered from the effects of the disease in 2005, according to the 2006 UNAIDS Report. These 1.7 million either had the virus themselves or had a personal connection to someone who had contracted it.

Zimbabwe carries one of the highest infection rates in the world, ranging in the past few years between 20 and 25 percent of the country’s residents, Coleclough added.

Coleclough pointed to invisible social killers – such as stigmas, neglect, ignorance and lack of female empowerment – as the forces that dramatically spread the epidemic.

“They’ll use the words ‘ill’ or ‘sick;’ they won’t use HIV,” she said. “HIV is one of the biggest elephants in the room.”

But Coleclough said neglect stems from more than just the stigma against getting tested.

“Because there is a limitation of resources, people think if you have HIV, you will die,” she said.

Ignorance is another obstacle the group must combat because many people are unaware of the details of how HIV spreads, she said.

Her organization tries to empower women because of a growing number who are economically dependent on their husbands, Coleclough said.

“They don’t know how to tell their husbands to use a condom,” she said. “If we increase their capacity to increase their own income, they don’t have to engage in certain activities for economic benefit.”

Working through community resources is key, Coleclough said.

Her organization pushes programs and HIV awareness through a voluntary counseling and testing center, which operates HIV testing. The center extends its services to 10 rural communities, each of which has a healthcare worker who focuses on direct outreach to local workers.

“We empower them to help themselves” through programs that offer medical care, nutrition, education, counseling and income generation, she said.

Coleclough encouraged students to get involved, which she said was neither complicated nor difficult.

“Somebody getting basic vitamins, you can really save their life, you add something to the pot. The point is to give people the resources to survive.”

Weinberg sophomore Jessica Rockswold said she was interested in the subject because she plans on studying public health in South Africa in spring 2008.

“You see it in the media or news, but don’t usually hear about it from someone who’s been there,” she said.

Coleclough’s speech was presented by Organized Action by Students Invested in Society, which also donated $500 to Coleclough’s organization in place of the usual speaker fee.

“We know it is going to go to a good cause” said Ying Zhu Chin, a McCormick senior and co-president of OASIS,

The event’s others sponsors were Amnesty International, College Democrats, HIV and AIDS Literacy Organization and Northwestern Community Development Corps.

Reach Alissa Dos Santos at [email protected].