Another World AIDS Day has come and gone

Another World AIDS Day has come and gone. This day serves as a call to action to remember the millions of people in communities all around the world that are affected by HIV and AIDS.

However, AIDS weighs on my mind far more than once a year. It wasn't until four years ago that I even knew a person who had been impacted by AIDS. I had heard all of the statistics. I knew the severity of the pandemic, especially in counties such as Swaziland and South Africa with some of the highest prevalence rates in the world.

But the severity of the disease and the broader impact on life in affected communities was beyond my comprehension. That was until 2006, when I traded in my comfortable Los Angeles existence working in TV commercial production for a one-year volunteer stint in a rural South African village. My new home at NextAid's Community Center construction site was located in the rural township of Dennilton, Mpumalanga Province.

During my first year of living there, Dennilton had an estimated 30 percent HIV prevalence rate. This number, while astounding, still didn't fully resonate with me until I was able to hear the stories of the locals who were shouldering the burden of a village ravaged by the disease.