School AIDS Day 2006

Presentation College and Christian Brothers College jointly hosted School AIDS Day at St Mary's Church, East St Kilda in early August.

The guest speaker was former Presentation College student, Alicia Crawford, who told the large gathering of her personal experience of working with HIV/AIDS infected people in Africa.

Alicia Crawford speaks at the School AIDS Day ceremony.

The message of School AIDS Day was 'What does AIDS have to do with us?'

Ms Crawford spent a year in Tanzania working with young people on an AIDS education program. She says she arrived back in Melbourne feeling like a "bag of bricks" were weighing her down.

"The realisation that one in three Tanzanians had HIV/AIDS was overwhelming. Not many people get tested in Tanzania because of the stigma of having the disease and the poverty. I left Tanzania with a strong sense that it (AIDS) was a global issue and that I had a bag of bricks on my shoulder. I asked, ‘What can I do about AIDS?’

"I didn't do much when I first came back to Melbourne in 2003," Alicia told the students. "I became more involved in AIDS after a year or two. People don't have a great conception of what AIDS is and yet in 2005, 38.6 million people had the disease."

As part of School AIDS Day, students were able to donate a gold coin for a red ribbon, with proceeds going to Catholic AIDS Ministry.