I didn’t have to think long at all before I thought of a topic that really interests me: the Keep a Child Alive organization co-founded by the amazing singer/songwriter Alicia Keys. I first heard about Keep a Child Alive from the music video for Alicia Keys’ song “Teenage Love Affair”. One of the scenes in the beginning before the song starts is of a college campus rally and shows a student announcing over a megaphone that there is an epidemic in Africa and that if we all work together we can change the world, that he can’t do it alone. There are other students holding signs that say “AIDS + Ignorance = Death” and another sign that says “Keep a Child Alive”. I’ve always been interested in protest culture and people standing up for what’s right and speaking up so I thought it was really cool that my favorite musical artist included a scene like that in her video. When I started researching Keep a Child Alive and what they stand for I was very impressed and filled with hope. Part of …show more content…
Some shift ‘foster’ homes several times as even their guardians die. Others lose contact with siblings shunted to different households. They lose opportunities and fear that they, too, are infected with HIV. And because of the silence surrounding HIV and AIDS, they worry alone about their future…The strain of parental illness and death trigger anxiety, fear, sadness, withdrawal, and depression. Many children in Africa are growing up in the relative absence of adult love, protection, and guidance...Stigma and discrimination also contribute to the emotional toll of AIDS. Neighbors keep a distance for fear of infection and gossip about infected parents. Peers commonly tease and isolate the children. Teachers may turn children away for lack of school supplies, with no consideration of their family circumstances. And guardians who experience orphans as a burden may shun them, neglect them, or
“There are 946,000 children attending New York City schools, and only one of them — an unidentified second-grader enrolled at an undisclosed school — is known to suffer from acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, the dread disease known as AIDS. But the parents of children at P.S. 63 in Queens, one of the city’s 622 elementary schools, were not taking any chances last week. As the school opened its doors for the fall term, 944 of its 1,100 students stayed
“Clinically, the HIV infected adolescents present as physically stunted individuals, with delayed puberty and adrenarche. Mental illness and substance abuse are important co-morbidities” (Naswa, 2010). Naswa, 2010 also reports that adolescences with HIV have a higher susceptibility rate to contract STD’s that the average individual due to the thinner lining of mucus in the ovaries at this stage of their development. The stigma of living with HIV is also a factor for her psychosocial development. The fact that she contracted this disease from her father further contributes to emotional trauma.
...ions over her own body; whether it is parenthood, adoption, contraception, or yes, abortion. After all, it is entirely plausible for people to be personally pro-life but politically pro-choice – this suggests that they respect each individuals’ rights over his or her own body and recognize that each woman should be allowed to have options. Regardless of whether or not she chooses to have the child, it is the fact that she has a choice that is crucial, and it is imperative that each woman have the freedom of individual autonomy. In order for this to occur, abortion must continue to be legal. Ultimately, being pro-choice is not necessarily advocating the use of abortion – it is about ensuring that abortion is legal so that women may have the option to exercise their right to individual autonomy and make the decisions that best reflects their stance in life.
Abortion has been the topic of controversy for many decades. Many people believe that when a woman terminates a pregnancy, she is committing murder and others argue that a woman has the right to choose life or abortion. There are different procedures to choose when having an abortion, depending on the gestational age and the woman 's health a pill form abortion may be used up to 9 weeks gestation (mifepristone and misoprostol), but for women who are over 12-weeks gestation (late-term abortion), surgical abortion is used (Berer 25). In 1973, the supreme court ruled that abortion was to be legalized, Roe vs. Wade. Women were given the legal right to choose to terminate their pregnancies and make the correct arrangements for their decisions. Different states have different restrictions to accessing abortion procedures, making the woman 's choice to terminate pregnancy less accessible. Restricting a woman 's access to appropriate abortion clinics limits her right to choose.
The birth of a child is usually a wonderful and priceless occasion. However, on June 5, 2015, an eleven-year-old girl gave birth to a newborn girl. Approximately a year before she gave birth, her 40-year-old father repeatedly sexually assaulted her. In this case, the unprepared eleven-year-old child decided to have the baby. This is a prime example that illustrates that the right to abortion should always be vested in the woman. Abortion, which has been debated for centuries and will continue to be fought upon for centuries to come, is a hot issue among social, political, and religious entities. This research paper will inform the reader about abortion using scholarly journals to define abortion, specifically when a fetus becomes a human being,
Despite the fact that grief is usually associated with death, research shows that children that are placed in a home through adoption or through foster care have enormous amounts of grief and loss. Grief is a
The majority of children who would otherwise need foster care are in kinship care, which
How would you feel if someone decided that you should never get a chance at life? That
Abortion Abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy. It is one of the most debated topics in the United States. The question about abortion has always been is it ethical to have an abortion. If you answer yes to that question, then you stand on the pro-choice side. If you answer no to that question, you stand on the pro-life side.
“Approximately 30,000 to 40,000 youth leave the foster care system each year with no permanent, stable family to support them as they negotiate the challenges of early adulthood” (Diehl 81). Additionally, according to the most recent “Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System” from 2013, 296,833 children between the ages of four to eighteen, considered of older youth to adoptee parents (Waterman 18), lived in the foster care system. The highest amount of children placed was at 16 or 17 years old. This totaled to be 53,990, and came to be about 20 percent of the children residing in this lifestyle (AFCARS Report #21). Yet, even while these numbers exist, the problem remains. Older children without a definite family are not being adopted. Statistics display numbers well, but the one thing statistics do not display is perspective. When a people look at these numbers, they shouldn’t see just numbers but children in need of a
Imagine the thought of losing everything you have at such a young age, and having to do everything on your own without any help. The thought of losing one’s parents and being put through foster care is a child’s worst nightmare. In the book “Grief Girl” a teenage girl has to endure the pain of losing both of her parents and help take care of her younger brother. Losing a parent is not the only issue children have to deal with, but it is one that is so heartbreaking and overlooked at times. Children can become depressed, suicidal and even lose their appetite, making them become anorexic. Children are faced with choices they never thought they would be faced with, pain they are not use to, and long lasting grief they were not prepared for. The problems that a lot of young children have to face today are beyond horrendous. There are several ways people can help children cope with these issues without stepping over their boundaries. In order for that to happen friends and family have to get down on their level and show sympathy and compassion in a way that they understand. Children may run away, crawl into a shell or show that they need open arms and acceptance. Whether it is an infant or a teenager experiencing this loss, pain is always there and in older children it needs to be made aware of so that there is not any further harm done to that person physically or emotionally.
Abortion has been one of the most talked about topics in society just about anywhere from television, magazines, whether or not it should be the right or wrong thing to do. Abortion is a very sensitive issue to discuss, because of its nature. Many people have said that abortion is a very bad thing to do and it should not even be choice whether or not to abort a living fetus. People think that abortion is committing murder as it is killing the human fetus. However, others feel that a woman should have a voice and have the right to choose to keep the child or not and that it is not murder until the baby is born. Majority of individuals who believe that abortion is bad say that the fetus is human who is partly being formed and to have an abortion is considered to be murder. For the people who think an abortion is ok, say that it’s not considered murder unless the child is born. I believe that abortion should be seen in which the stage the fetus is in. if the fetus is in an early stage of pregnancy it is not considered murder, but if the fetus has already began to develop into a larger fetus then it is indeed considered to be murder. There are times when abortion can be accepted, if the mother is having complications due to pregnancy. For example if the mother is enduring complications in her pregnancy that can harm her, because of the child in that case it is ok to perform an abortion to help save the mother’s life. It is also very important to understand this type of situation. The mother has the right to have an abortion and it is her decision because a mother knows best about her health conditions.
From the moment scientists identified HIV and AIDS, social responses of fear, denial, stigma and discrimination have accompanied the epidemic. Discrimination has spread rapidly, fuelling anxiety and prejudice against the groups most affected, as well as those living with HIV or AIDS. It goes without saying that HIV and AIDS are as much about social phenomena as they are about biological and medical concerns. Across the world the global epidemic of HIV/AIDS has shown itself capable of triggering responses of compassion, solidarity and support, bringing out the best in people, their families and communities. But the disease is also associated with stigma, repression and discrimination, as individuals affected (or believed to be affected) by HIV have been rejected by their families, their loved ones and their communities. This rejection holds as true in the rich countries of the north as it does in the poorer countries of the south.
Abortion Taking out the trash, or taking a human life? That is what most the argument is with abortion, some believe that abortion is okay because the fetus is not yet a person, and that the fetus will be nothing but trouble. On the other side people believe that even all the way down to the zygote (when sperm meets the egg and earliest stage of pregnancy) there is a human growing in you. A growing boy or girl, with their own little fingers, and toes, their own cute as can be toothless smile, and their functioning organs. To them one day that zygote will turn into someone great, a person just like you and I that needs love just as you and I, a person that deserves to not get taken from our world before it even has a chance to take its first breath.
The emergence of HIV/AIDS is viewed globally as one of the most serious health and developmental challenges our society faces today. Being a lentivirus, HIV slowly replicates over time, attacking and wearing down the human immune system subsequently leading to AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) at which point the affected individual is exposed to life threatening illnesses and eventual death. Despite the fact that a few instances of this disease have been accounted for in all parts of the world, a high rate of the aforementioned living with HIV are situated in either low or medium wage procuring nations. The Sub-Saharan region Africa is recognized as the geographic region most afflicted by the pandemic. In previous years, people living with HIV or at risk of getting infected did not have enough access to prevention, care and treatment neither were they properly sensitized about the disease. These days, awareness and accessibility to all the mentioned (preventive methods, care etc.) has risen dramatically due to several global responses to the epidemic. An estimated half of newly infected people are among those under age 25(The Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic). It hits hard as it has no visible symptoms and can go a long time without being diagnosed until one is tested or before it is too late to manage.