Are you HIV aware? If you are, you will know why this is a particularly pertinent question this weekend. On the other hand, you may just have seem quite a lot of people wearing a now very famous red ribbon and realised that Sunday the 1st of December is World AIDS day. World AIDS day is held on the 1st of December each year, in fact, and is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died. World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day; it started in 1988. We've come a long way in our understanding of HIV since then, although some confusion still exists about the hows and whys of the human immunodeficiency virus. For that reason we strongly recommend a quick look at http://www.worldaidsday.org/ and http://www.hivaware.org.uk/. Both websites are very useful sources of information. It’s obviously a subject close to the hearts of all of us in who work in, or have regular contact with, Kenya. Because, although it is important — indeed essential — that events like World AIDS Day raise awareness, it’s not just a subject for one day a year. It’s something that a lot of people, many of them in Kenya, live with year-round. And combating the spread of HIV in Kenya is something we are concerned with as part of our health work. In fact Friends of Londiani has run a peer education course on the subject since 2002 in Kenya; some 10,000 people have completed it. More about our work in health education can be found at here. And of course, Friends of Londiani and its supporters in Kipkelion District will be marking World AIDS day. We hope you will too.