How to Help People With AIDS

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a disease of the immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and, according to data collected by UNAIDS, affected 33.2 million people throughout the world in 2007. If you have a loved one who suffers from this disease, have the disease yourself, or simple want to help those with AIDS, there are several nonprofit organizations and resources you can turn to.

Instructions

• 1

  Contact an AIDS organization that is near you (see Resources). Ask to be sent information regarding what the organization does to help those with AIDS and how you can join the organization. Also, call your local hospitals to see if they will allow you to volunteer to help current AIDS patients.

• 2

  Go to the website for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) to learn more about the efforts being put into research for creating an AIDS vaccine (see Resources). From the website, you can donate or request more information that can be mailed to your home.

• 3

  Visit the American Refugee Committee (ARC) website, which specializes in providing aid to people in Africa and Asia who need help (see Resources). Several refugees also suffer from AIDS and can be helped by your donations and volunteer work. Some of the volunteer work the ARC offers includes living for a few months with refugees overseas, providing basic assistance (i.e., serving food, cleaning, helping distribute aid) and performing office work for the organization.

• 4

  Sign up for the AIDS Council newsletter for information on how to help those within your local community and throughout the world who suffer from AIDS (see Resources). Click on the "Contact Us to Help" option to tell the organization how you can help or click on the "Volunteer Now!" option to sign up to volunteer with the organization.

• 5

  Consider helping medical institutions that perform clinical trials to help fight AIDS by donating to specific research. Go to the National Library of Medicine website to search for current clinical trails for AIDS medicine (see Resources). Once you've found a clinical trial that is being conducted near you, make sure you meet all the requirements. Read all the warnings and health risks involved before you sign up. If you have AIDS, HIV or early symptoms of either one, you can also participate in clinical trials to help others who are also diagnosed with the disease.