When I first looked at this picture the first thing I recognized was a young child with a paper hat on his head that has a saying on it: Don’t make me an orphan by dying from aids.

When looking at this picture I see an African child that looks no older than 8. The first thing I say to my self is this child is full innocence. It makes me start to think that just because kids are young they still know what’s happening in our world today. Parents and grown-ups can no longer try to hide information from them. When I look at him I could tell in the look in his eyes that he has been or has seen it all. He knows HIV/Aids are the most deadly disease in American especially in Africa. As soon as I read the writing on his paper hat “Don’t make me an orphan by dying from aids.” I start to think if his mother or father is suffering from Aids and he doesn’t want to become an orphan when they die.

I don’t know when HIV/Aids had begun, but I do know that during 1940s HIV had jumped from animals to humans. To this day many people are suffering from this disease. In 2006, approximately millions of people are suffering with this disease about half of the number of people that are suffering from it doesn’t even know it. Many people though the only people to get this disease is by having sexual intercourse with the same gender. What people really don’t know is that you can get HIV when you use the same needle as someone else. People who inject themselves with drugs also risk infecting themselves with HIV.

The photographer’s intention on this photo was to show viewers that not only should we acknowledge the importance behind HIV/aids but the message this child is displaying on his hat. The photographer is letting the audience know not only does this disease affect adults but it affects young ones!