PAGE 4 I THE MEREDITH HERALD | OCTOBER 14, 2009
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CLIMBING MT. KILIMANJARO TO RAISE
AWARENESS FOR CLEAN WATER
WORLDWIDE
Mayah Collins
Staff Writer
According to www.summiton-
thesummit.com, (Summit on the
Summit official Web site) more
than one billion people worldwide
do not have access to clean and
safe drinking water. This fact has
sparked consciousness in the
hearts of singer Justin Timberlake,
rapper Lupe Fiasco, actress Jes
sica Biel, and singer Kenna. These
celebrities are working together to
. raise awareness for the worldwide
water crisis by climbing Mount
Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa.
Their vigorous journey will begin iri
January of 2010.
Mount Kilimanjaro stands at
19,340 feet above sea level, mak
ing this the highest freestanding
mountain in the world. Its altitude
and low temperature will make this
trek challenging and dangerous.
The celebrities are going to train
and prepare for their climb exten
sively, mentally and physically.
The climbers will have difficulties
along the way such as shortness
of breath, but they will continue to
raise awareness for clean water
crisis even if they cannot continue
the journey.
In a recent interview by Elle
ma^zine, Kenna gave his opinion
about the water crisis. He stated,
“My dad almost died as a child
from waterborne diseases in Ethio
pia, and he had talked to me about
digging a well there, and I thought,
‘1 have too many friends who
would be concerned with the sub
ject of clean water. Maybe I can
help out.’” His Immediate relation
ship to this pandemic has caused
prevent or stop, then we should
get involved. There’s no reason for
us to sit around and think because
it’s not happening In our backyard-
that we’re not somehow responsi^
ble or that we shouldn’t help. We’re
all in this together, and we should
Photocourtesywww.americanrivers.org/assets/images/ar/slldes/slide-5-clean-water.jpg
him to take charge of the situation
and try to spark awareness that
win reach the masses.
Brittany S. Morgan, a junior at
Meredith College gave her input
about her concerns of the impor
tance of having clean and safe
water worldwide. She replied, “We
should be concerned about this
crisis because this is happening in
our world, if one part of the earth
is suffering from something we can
help each other out as much as
humanly possible.” Katelyn Moore,
a junior at Meredith also gave her
thoughts about this global is
sue and her view about how the
celebrities are creating awareness
for It. Accordino to Moore, “Climb
ing a mountain is very creative and
different because usually people
raise awareness for different
causes by walking. I do agree that
clean water worldwide is important.
Unfortunately, most of the time
when there is a limited supply'of
clean water, it is due to corrupt
governments. I believe everyone
should have access to fresh, clean
water" It is highly important to mo
tivate the masses about clean and
safe water because this is not a
national issue at hand^but a global
one. If we all come together, could
we stop or prevent sickening mis
fortunes such as this one?
Many partners are teaming up
with Summit on the Summit to help
with this effort. Partners include
Expedition Technology by HP, Wa
ter Solutions by PUR, Expedition
outfitting by First Ascent-by Eddie
Bauer, and Charitable Advising
by United Nations Foundation.
The official beneficiaries include
Children's Safe Drinking Water, the
UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR),
and Play Pumps International.
The partners.and beneficiaries are
to provide a helping hand with the
awareness project and to lend sup
port by making this trek a success.
If you want to follow Summit
on the Summit online, join them
on Facebook, Twitter or Myspace.
There you can gain knowledge of
the climbers’journey and prepara
tion for the trek in January.
RENEWED HOPE FOR HIV/AIDS
VACCINES
MariamawitTadesse
Assistant Editor
This September renewed hopes
for finding a vaccine against HIV/
AIDS surfaced when a trial pro
gram in Thailand appeared to re
duce infection rates by more than
30%. In the past twenty-five years,
the AIDS pandemic has killed 25
million people and it infects 33 mil
lion people today. The quest to find
a vaccine has been going on for
decades, and it involves different
public-health experts, scientists,
companies and non- profit orga
nizations along with government
funded projects. This search for a
vaccine is the first success to show
considerable promise in its protec
tion against HIV. ,
The research, which was fund
ed by the US army, was done on
16,402 Thai volunteers, and it was
shown to lower their infection rates
by 30 percent within three years.
According to Reuters, “Vaccines
need to be at least 50 percent
effective and usually 70 to 80 per
cent effective to be useful.” It will
be another five to ten years until
a successful vaccine is distributed
in the world. Dr Saladin Osmanov,
co-coordinator of the World Health
Organization UN AIDS
Vaccine program told the BBC.
Reuters aisp reported that the
vaccine is'actually a combination
of two old vaccines: The Sanofi-
Pasteur’s ALVAC canarypox/HIV
vaccine, which includes synthetic
versions of three HIV genes, and
the failed HIV vaccine AIDSVAX,
made by a San Francisco com
pany called VaxGen which is now
owned by the nonprofit Global
Solutions for Infectious Diseases.
"It’s unclear why two vaccines that
have been separately tested and
had little activity or none, when put
together seem to give 30% protec
tion," Barry Bloom, a former dean
of the Harvard School of Public
Health told the Wall Street Journal.
The other side of this renewed
vaccine story debates whether
the vaccine would work in Africa
because Thailand has subtypes
B and" E of the virus while Africa
has subtypes A, C and D. Africa^ a
continent where two-thirds of the
total 33 million infected with HIV
live, and where 75 % of all AIDS
deaths occurred in 2007, needs a
specific vaccine incorporating local
HIV subtypes.