My experience with AIDS

Hello, I am a 15 year old girl currently living in Dover, Mass. My father works for CRI (Community Resurch Initiative) where he is doing drugs tests for a cure for AIDS/HIV.

My whole life I have grown up around people who are gay and I have never seen anything different between me and them. Going to school for me was hard because all my friends would always use the saying "oh that's so gay." I never really understood why being gay was such a bad thing. In fact, my Aunt is a lesbian.

When I was about 5, my father's best friend died from AIDS. He was devestated. It was then that my father decided to start working on a cure. A couple years later his two other friends died leaving their 15 year old son fatherless. I have never seen my father so upset, it was as if this "small" disease was killing him.

I never really understood what AIDS was, I guess I was too young. My father would always educate me and show me pictures of the virus inside the body. He would tell me about safe sex, although I was 10 at the time. He would always say that if he taught me maybe I could pass it on to other people.
The full blow of AIDS hit me when a friend of mine died a few months ago from it. He was 15 years old, and although he had made some mistakes in his life, I didn't understand why he had to be taken away from me. I talked to my father about it and he understood my pain.

Recently he has been looking into workshops in Africa. We are hoping very much that we can transfer over there and try to help out. I know that there is alot of AIDS in that part of the world and that they arn't as wealthy in healthcare as we are. I would love to spend a year over there giving people what we have.
Although we may not find a cure for AIDS, there is nothing more meaningful then the thought of someone wanting to help you. I know that there are people out there working hard to find a cure and I can't wait for the day they do. Until then if any one knows of any good programs in Africa please contact me. Thank you very much...

~Rory