In my J50 class we were required to research a topic in order to practice obtaining information through electronic resources. We learned to narrow topics using key words and Library of Congress Subject Headings and search skills necessary to research information using a variety of sources such as the UNC-CH library electronic catalog, Academic Universe Lexis-Nexis, electronic databases, and World Wide Web sources.

I chose to research the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Below is a copy of my completed "Treasure Hunt" assignment on AIDS.

JOMC 50 TREASURE HUNT

Tara Flanigan

Lab section 401

Friday 8am, Lillie

Project Title: The Spread of AIDS in Africa

Section I:

For my treasure hunt I want to search for information on the spread of the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Last year I worked with a group of friends to start a nonprofit organization called World Camp for Kids, which is dedicated to improving the lives of impoverished children throughout the world. Through fund-raisers, grants and a letter-writing campaign we raised $50,000 in cash and in-kind donations to provide educational camps for primary school children in Africa. Last summer World Camp for Kids spent three months in South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, and Malawi holding 2-day camps teaching kids about AIDS, environmental protection, health concerns, and arts and crafts.

These camps were a great success and the need for more such programs is very great in this part of the world. However, without statistical information and other proof to document the conditions the children in Africa are facing it is difficult to raise the money to fund such programs. By researching the topic of AIDS in Africa I hope to find information that would be beneficial to grant applications and donor letters.

I currently know from first-hand experience that AIDS is killing millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa. Many children are becoming orphaned as their parents die of AIDS. Governments are concerned that most of the working members of their populations will be dead in the near future. The rate of AIDS cases is growing more rapidly in sub-Saharan Africa than in any other area of the world. The reason for the rapid spread of the disease includes misconceptions about how the virus spreads, lack of communication about sex, distrust of condoms, and cultural fallacies.

I want to learn specific statistics about the spread of AIDS, how the disease is specifically affecting children, how many children will be orphaned by AIDS, which countries are hardest hit by the epidemic, how many people are dying annually in Africa from AIDS, and what is currently being done to solve the problem.

The intended audience for this research is potential donors to World Camp for Kids. This information could potentially be used in brochures, fact sheets, press releases, and grant applications for the organization. It is intended in general to bring more credibility to the nonprofit by backing up our claims about the problem in Africa with concrete data and resources on the issue. This information should hopefully help potential donors to realize the gravity of the situation in Africa and be inclined to contribute financially or otherwise to our cause.

Keywords:

UNC Library Catalog:

statistics AND AIDS AND Africa

AIDS AND Africa AND children

AIDS AND Africa

Academic Universe Lexis-Nexis:

Sub-Saharan Africa w/s AIDS

children AND AIDS AND Africa

AltaVista:

children AND Africa NEAR AIDS

children AND Malawi NEAR AIDS

Yahoo:

statistics and AIDS and Africa

children and AIDS and Africa

Section II: UNC Library Sources

Print Sources

1. United States. Agency for International Development. Office of Health and

Nutrition. HIV/AIDS in the developing world. Washington, DC : U.S. Agency for International Development, Bureau of Global Programs, Field Support, and Research, Center for Population, Health and Nutrition, Office of Health and Nutrition : US Dept. of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, Bureau of the Census, 1999.

Call number: C 3.205/3:WP/98-2

2. Presidential Mission on Children Orphaned by AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa

(US) Report on the presidential mission on children orphaned by AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa: findings and plan of action. [book on-line]. Washington, DC: Office of National AIDS Policy, 1999, accessed 18 September 2001; available from http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS3496; Internet.

Call number: PREX 1.2:OR 7

Non-Paper

1.      Frances, Reid, and Sharon Wood. The Faces of AIDS [videorecording]

Arlington, Va.: Family Health International AIDSTECH / AIDSCAP, 1992.

Call number: WC 503.7 VC6 1992

Section III: Academic Universe Lexis-Nexis Sources

1. (2001, August 29). Charity: AIDS could orphan third of children in 11 African nations. Deutsche Presse-Agentur [Online], International News (312 words)Available: Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe [2001, September 18]. 

2. Booker, Salih, and William Minter. (2001, July 9). Global apartheid: AIDS has hit Africa especially hard due to inequalities of wealth, power. The Gazette (Montreal) [Online], p. B3 (713 words) Available: Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe [2001, September 18]. 

3. Free Press News Services. (2000, November 25). AIDS/HIV infected 5.3M this year, UN reports. The London Free Press [Online], p. A6 (105 words) Available: Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe [2001, September 18].

4. Crawley, Mike, dpa. (2001,July 23). NEWS FEATURE: Africa forced to cope with big rise in AIDS orphans. Deutsche Presse-Agentur [Online], International News (500 words) Available: Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe [2001, September 18].

5. (2001, June 22). SKWEYIYA TO STUDY CHILD-RELATED PROGRAMMES AT AIDS SUMMIT. SAPA (South African Press Association) [Online], (244 words) Available: Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe [2001, September 18].

6.  (2001, May 14).  AIDS will make 43 million African children orphans: report. Deutsche Presse-Agentur [Online], Entertainment, Television and Culture (255 words) Available: Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe [2001, September 18].

7. (2001, January 19). DYING CHILD FIGHTS TO OVERCOME AIDS, IGNORANCE. The Toronto Star [Online], News (1350 words) Available: Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe [2001, September 18].

Section IV: Web Sources

1.      Title of Web Page: allAfrica.com

Web Address: http://allafrica.com/aids/

Brief Description: The site gives current news stories on AIDS in Africa and can search for news and information on specific African countries.

Source of Website: AllAfrica Global Media

2.      Title of Web Page: AIDS: Africa in Peril

Web Address: http://www8.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/aids/

Brief Description: This is a site on a CNN special report on AIDS in Africa. It links to an overview of the AIDS epidemic, treatments, particulars relating to children, its economic impact, and images of AIDS victims.

Source of Website: CNN

3.      Title of Web Page: AIDS & Africa

Web Address: http://www.aidsandafrica.com/

Brief Description: This site contains photos, statistics, and individual country reports on the AIDS pandemic.

Source of Website: aidsandafrica

4.      Title of Web Page: UNAIDS

Web Address: http://www.unaids.org/index.html

Brief Description: This site contains publications on AIDS information organized by country and subject. It also has global reports and the most recent HIV/AIDS statistics.

Source of Website: UNAIDS

5.      Title of Web Page: Death Stalks a Continent

Web Address: http://www.time.com/time/2001/aidsinafrica/

Brief Description: This is an excellent cover story article with pictures, statistical graphs, and a counter displaying the number of people contracting AIDS, updated every 25 seconds.

Source of Website: Time

6.      Title of Web Page: AIDS in Africa: A deadly epidemic sweeps the continent

Web Address: http://www.msnbc.com/modules/aids_in_Africa/alDs_in_Africa_front.asp

Brief Description: This is another great story on AIDS with a very graphic and emotional slideshow.

Source of Website: MSNBC

Section V: Mini-Essay

            Title: AIDS: A Modern-day Plague

            Topic Area: AIDS in Africa

Over the past decade the spread of AIDS has become one of the world’s greatest threats to the human race. Last year 3 million people died of AIDS worldwide. Only 20,000 of these were inhabitants of North America, while 2.4 million were from sub-Saharan Africa. (1) There is a clear racial and economic pattern in this staggering display of statistics. Africa has been hardest hit because of the terrible impact of poverty, bringing malnutrition and therefore lowered immune systems and disease resistance, as well as ignorance of AIDS because of poor educational systems. The modern-day apartheid is economic, and its implications when paired with the problem of AIDS has been devastating. While the western world has the ability to provide funding for medicines, condoms and educational programs to spread information about AIDS, countries in the developing world do not and are therefore faced with a tremendous loss of life due to an inferior position in the global economic hierarchy. According to UN estimates, 15 million Africans have already died of AIDS; another 25 million are currently infected. (2)

Children, the most innocent of all AIDS victims have been hardest hit by the epidemic. In South Africa, one in three babies born is infected with HIV. (3) The most staggering effect of the spread of AIDS, however, has been the number of children left orphaned by the AIDS-related deaths of their parents. Approximately 43 million children in Africa will become orphans by the year 2010 due to AIDS. (4) In South Africa, 11 percent of all children are facing orphanhood. (5) There is little hope for children without parental protection and care. These children are forced to attempt survival without monetary resources, shelter, or love, as most of the children are stigmatized by extended family and community members because their parents’ death due to AIDS. In the words of Sibongile Mthembu-Mkhabela, chief executive officer with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, “Children without parental protection lose the opportunities for school, health care, growth, development, nutrition, shelter and even their rights to a decent and humane existence.” (5)

Without the help of the international community, the future of sub-Saharan Africa looks bleak. 

Notes:

(1) Booker, Salih, and William Minter. (2001, July 9). Global apartheid: AIDS has hit Africa especially hard due to inequalities of wealth, power. The Gazette (Montreal) [Online], p. B3 (713 words) Available: Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe [2001, September 18]. 

(2) Crawley, Mike, dpa. (2001,July 23). NEWS FEATURE: Africa forced to cope with big rise in AIDS orphans. Deutsche Presse-Agentur [Online], International News (500 words) Available: Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe [2001, September 18].

(3) (2001, January 19). DYING CHILD FIGHTS TO OVERCOME AIDS, IGNORANCE. The Toronto Star [Online], News (1350 words) Available: Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe [2001, September 18].

(4) (2001, May 14).  AIDS will make 43 million African children orphans: report. Deutsche Presse-Agentur [Online], Entertainment, Television and Culture (255 words) Available: Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe [2001, September 18].

(5) (2001, August 29). Charity: AIDS could orphan third of children in 11 African nations. Deutsche Presse-Agentur [Online], International News (312 words)Available: Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe [2001, September 18]. 

Three Web Sites:

1.  Title of Web Page: UNAIDS

     Web Address: http://www.unaids.org/index.html

Brief Description: This site contains publications on AIDS information organized by country and subject. It also has global reports and the most recent HIV/AIDS statistics.

Source of Website: UNAIDS

2.      Title of Web Page: Death Stalks a Continent

Web Address: http://www.time.com/time/2001/aidsinafrica/

Brief Description: This is an excellent cover story article with pictures, statistical graphs, and a counter displaying the number of people contracting AIDS, updated every 25 seconds.

Source of Website: Time

3.      Title of Web Page: AIDS in Africa: A deadly epidemic sweeps the continent

Web Address: http://www.msnbc.com/modules/aids_in_Africa/alDs_in_Africa_front.asp

Brief Description: This is another great story on AIDS with a very graphic and emotional slideshow.

Source of Website: MSNBC