TAKE ACTION: Participate in the World AIDS Day prayer vigil

from the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns

Please sign up to participate in this year’s World AIDS Day 24-hour prayer vigil.

Maryknoll missioners have worked in ministries focused on persons living with HIV and AIDS since the early 1980s, before the extent of the pandemic would be known, long before the loss of millions of lives from AIDS. In the ensuing years, Maryknollers have accompanied people dying of AIDS, worked with children orphaned by AIDS, supported women and girl children who are at risk of violence or sexual abuse, and witnessed the direct impact of debt, trade issues and poverty on societies being decimated by AIDS.

First held in 1988, World AIDS Day is commemorated every year on December 1. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 33.4 million people around the world are currently living with HIV/AIDS; more than 25 million people have died of AIDS worldwide since the first cases were reported in 1981. While cases have been reported in all regions of the world, almost all those living with HIV (97 percent) reside in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, and most of them have limited or no access to prevention, care, and treatment; no cure exists.

On December 1, join the 24-hour vigil to pray for those living with HIV and AIDS and for those whose lives were cut short due to HIV or AIDS.

Use this link to add your name and the time when you wish to pray on Sunday, December 1. Hours are posted according to Eastern Standard Time — for instance, if you are in Nairobi and wish to pray at 9 AM (Nairobi time), please choose 1 AM on the list.

Use this time zone converter to find the corresponding time.

Read the Maryknoll AIDS Task Force prayer.

Please share this invitation with others! All are welcome to join.