Students send safer sex supplies to Kazakhstan

To recognize World AIDS Day this year, student volunteers will assemble condom care packages to be sent to Kazakhstan Thursday, Nov. 30.

Assembling the packages and other events scheduled through Friday, Dec. 1, are a collaborative effort of University Health Services, the AIDS Network and other campus organizations.

The packages will be sent to Peace Corps volunteer Roger Schimberg, a UW–Madison alumnus who works in an HIV/AIDS education clinic in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, a country approximately the size of Texas in the middle of Asia.

Eighty percent of all HIV/AIDS cases in the Republic of Kazakhstan are in Karaganda, and the need for condoms there is great. Well-made condoms, which are very hard to come by, will draw people into the clinic and will be a way to disseminate information about HIV/AIDS, Schimberg says.

World AIDS Day, which started in 1988, brings messages of compassion, solidarity and understanding about AIDS to every country in the world. The Kazakhstan event will be 7-8:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 30, at the Campus Women’s Center, fourth floor, Memorial Union. Those interested in volunteering may contact Abby Hougan, amhougan@students.wisc.edu

“A Celebration of Life” and a candlelight vigil will be held on World AIDS Day, Friday, Dec. 1, 6 p.m., at the First Congregational Church, 1609 University Ave., across from University Health Services. The celebration will feature music, dance, testimony and food. More information: Stuart Kipnis, AIDS Network, (608) 252-6540 ext. 31.