Monday, October 24, 2011

Social Media Against HIV/AIDS in Africa

Tick, tick, tick… the second hand goes. Time and chance fast ebb out as the trends grow worse. For a moment, I pause to analyze the situation and as always the results beat me up. More married couples falling victims of the virus by the day, the youth are more at risk with sky-rocketing prevalence rates every year.  HIV related maternal and infant mortality rates are not getting any better either.  This is why I ask myself pertinent questions such as; what went wrong in this beautiful continent? And how best can I utilize the available resources and my expertise to make a positive change?
Steve Jobs echoed this sentiment, ‘nobody wants to die, even those who want to go to heaven do not want to die to get there…’ and so it becomes clearer to me with each passing hour that none of us would find death on their first choice slot. We dread it, it breaks us. It shatters our dreams and renders humanity almost hopeless. We hate to die and often times we desist from discussing the theme of death. The paradox that this experience has allowed me to verse myself with is the fact that very few, if any of us seem to be truly committed to ending HIV/AIDS which currently appears to be one of the greatest threats to Africa’s economic and social growth.
The mentality in us is a sick one. It is the ‘poor’ mentality. Most African natives are socialized to believe that they are too poor to sort out their own issues and as such, continually rely on foreign aid and grants which have never been enough to totally eradicate the ills of African life. In a rejoinder to my pertinent questions, the end justifies the means. It does not matter to me how we get there, what matters if that we get there somehow. We cannot go to the streets in protest against the HIV virus like the Egyptians against bad governance. We cannot kill each other to end it either as the Kenyans and Libyans attempted in their case scenarios! The life of humanity is involved here, an infection in the immune system. Not governance, not election, nothing to do with uprisings here. So why not engage just another ‘system’ in the human body to salvage the affected other? The Central Nervous System?
We have one powerful machine that can propel us to make a difference. It has been with us this long but we have never appreciated its power. The power of Social Media. A substantial percentage of the world population has embraced the power of electronic media and communication especially the internet. If only we could take this as a golden opportunity to interact with the world. We would then share ideas and best practices globally in real time. While I appreciate the diversity that bombards us when we talk about worldwide media such as the internet, I must in a quick rejoinder reiterate that information shared is power. Out of the diversities we can craft workable strategies that are case specific and relevant to the situational needs of various world regions. Then we could use this unique blend of Social Electronic media to connect these ideas and elicit action. We tweet and blog almost daily, but how many times have we passed anti-HIV messages through these platforms? We log onto facebook, and create online social, professional and other interest groups but how many Anti-HIV groups have I seen since my initiation into facebook? I’m afraid none. So can we do something?