turn your cheek, not your back

The above is a slogan for an upcoming World AIDS Day campaign in my department. Those who suffer due to AIDS are often discriminated against, forgotten, and lonely. It is our belief as Christians, that God has called us to be salt and light in the world. We are his representatives of love and compassion. As Christ followers, we should be leading the way to touch the untouchable and reach the unreached.

For World AIDS Day this year, we are asking college students to get involved in a campaign related to gender based violence. In so many countries there are terrible atrocities that happen to children. In our work we encourage people to make healthy choices in their behavior (abstinence and fidelity), but this assumes there is a choice. Often that choice is taken through violence and coercion. This years campaign addresses issues such as the Virgin Cure. Did you know that in parts of the world it is believed that sex with a virgin will cure HIV or AIDS? The results of this myth are devastating and gender based violence is very real:

• Nearly 60 children are raped every day in South Africa
• 21,000 child rapes, and some 37,000 adult rapes, were reported in South Africa last year
• According to the South African Police Service, only one in 35 are actually reported. The actual incidence of rape could well be in excess of a million per year
• In Liberia, there was no law against gang rape until this year and few incidents are reported or prosecuted
• 87 per cent of women in Afghanistan complain of such violent attacks, half of which are sexual
• In 2002 in Uganda, fourteen percent of young women reported that their first sexual intercourse had been coerced

These are not just statistics. These are lives altered by violence. It can be stopped. It should be stopped. We need to face it. We must address it. Our Heavenly Father said, turn your cheek NOT your back.

This campaign is a call to action to help the vulnerable. It is my prayer that those who hear the message will respond, that this will be the start of a movement, not just an event.