Vigil honors AIDS victims

The names were whispered and proclaimed – “David,” “Gino,” “John” and others – amid the flicker of 100 handheld candles on a cold Saturday night. These local victims of the global AIDS pandemic were remembered in the soft glow by mothers and fathers, siblings, lovers, children and friends who gathered Saturday outside City Hall.

On this recognition of World AIDS Day, Spokane residents were reminded that the deadly virus is ravaging the populations of the world’s most vulnerable – children and the impoverished.

About 33.2 million people are living with human immunodeficiency virus, the virus that can lead to AIDS, which weakens the immune system. More than 25 million people have died of AIDS since 1981.

Though drugs and preventive education have helped fight the disease in the United States and other wealthy countries, AIDS continues to plague populations across Africa, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.

To mark the day of action around the world, the Spokane AIDS Network decided this year to auction a series of watercolors painted by HIV-infected children living in an orphanage in South Africa.

Mark Garrett, a chairman of the network who has lived with HIV for 18 years, called the pictures “the most important piece of art you will ever put on your wall.”

Each painting featured a companion picture of the child holding the watercolor. Many wore big, proud smiles.

Money from the auction is intended to benefit the orphanage, called the Rehoboth Children’s Village, situated in an area where 33 percent of the adult population is infected with HIV.

“It is a place to begin,” Garrett said to those who may not know how to help fight the disease.

Within Spokane County there are an estimated 750 to 1,250 people infected with HIV, according to the Spokane Regional Health District. There are about 933 people in Idaho living with HIV, according to Panhandle Health District.

The public health agencies encourage people to be tested for HIV.

Spokane Mayor Mary Verner read a proclamation of the city’s support of World AIDS Day. And James Ochwa-Echel, a faculty fellow for diversity at Eastern Washington University, encouraged political leaders to aggressively fight the disease.

“We know what needs to be done,” he said. “What we need now is the will.”