Facing AIDS on World AIDS Day and EVERY Day

Yesterday was National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Next month, we will commemorate National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (March 10) and National Native HIV/AIDS Day (March 20). Throughout the year, there are many nationally recognized HIV/AIDS Awareness Days. Some of these days provide an opportunity to understand and respond to the HIV epidemic's impact on a specific population or group impacted by HIV.

Two of the observance days, National HIV Testing Day (June 27) and World AIDS Day (December 1), particularly remind us that we are ALL impacted by the epidemic. That was the message of our Facing AIDS for World AIDS Day photo sharing initiative. Our hope in this initiative was that by putting our faces to AIDS, we can help reduce the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS, and promote HIV testing.

The following is a video that gives you (literally) a snapshot of people from across the country Facing AIDS together. This video represents just a fraction of the more than 1,500 people who joined us in Facing AIDS and submitted their photos to the official Flickr groupExit Disclaimer.To see what's coming in 2011, read the HIV.gov blog, follow the implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and check out our Awareness Day page throughout the year.