OFW ako Magazine ONLINE Edition Issue 001

OFW Ako Magazine - OnLINE Edition - 001

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OFW ako Magazine ONLINE Edition Issue 001
January 2012


INSIDE:

• OFWs bringing Christmas cheers for Lumad kids by Emmanuel C. Roldan p2-p5
• Health Corner: Eating Fruits p6-p7
• General Guidelines for a Filipino Forum in your Area by S. Z.Respicio, Jr. & PA Escalante p8-p9
• The Filipino Forum: the FILAM Experience by S. Z.Respicio, Jr. p10-p13
• Mga Bagong Bayani – “Nagsusumikap para sa sariling pamilya at upang makatulong sa kapwa.” by Marjorie C. Palma p14-p17
• The Event that Shook the Nation by Mark Shera C. Cruz p18-p19
• Hay …. Buhay Abroad Talaga p20-p22
• Ang Huling Pasko ng magkakaibigan by Melody Casem p23
• Makata si Juan at si Maria by Rein Eviota p24-p25
• Proud owners of OFW ako T-shirts p26
• Community Announcements p27

LINKS:

• @ Scribd.com --- http://www.scribd.com/doc/77086363/OFW-Ako-Magazine-OnLINE-Edition-001
• @ Wordpress.com --- http://ofwakomagazine.wordpress.com/
• @ Blogger.com --- http://ofwakomagazine.blogspot.com/
• @ Twitter.com --- http://twitter.com/ofwakomagazine/

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OFW ako Magazine ONLINE Edition is published by

OFW ako

61 Kamagong Road, Pilar Village, Las Pinas City

+63 949 776 9282 * ofwako.magazine@gmail.com

Editor-in-Chief: Dennis de Guzman

Contributors:

Kuwait: Marjorie C. Palma, Melody Casem

USA: Mark Shera C. Cruz,

UAE: Rein Eviota

Philippines: Emmanuel C. Roldan

Layout & Design: Dennis de Guzman

Articles, opinions, letters to the editor should be sent to ofwako.magazine@gmail.com

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About the AUTHORS

Marjorie C. Palma is an OFW based in Kuwait. She hailed from the province of Bohol and was born on February 5, 1976. She studied Bachelor in Political Science International Relations Major. She is now currently working as a Receptionist at the DAR AL SHIFA HOSPITAL. She is also a member of the OFW ako Community of Distributors (COD) in Kuwait.

S. Z.Respicio, Jr. is a Consulting Engineer of Mines, who moonlit as a Small Business Consultant while peddling used and new luxury cars, and join the Filipino-American Chamber of Commerce in San Diego County. He created the TOBY Awards of FACC, The Outstanding Business of the Year of FACC-SDC recognizing leaders in the Filipino American business, whether members to non-members of FACC-SDC.

Mark Shera C. Cruz is a native of Montalban, Rizal where he also served as a public school teacher until he left for USA in 2008, to join the Filipinos working overseas. Currently, he is a physics instructor at Garden City Sesnior High School, Kansas, USA and has been working for the district for three years. (e-mail: mark_admu@yahoo.com)

Rein Eviota is a graduate of Bachelor of Science & Industrial Technology major in Mechanical Technology at (SSCT) Surigao State College of Technology. He is currently an OFW working in UAE as a Procurement Officer.

Emmanuel Roldan is a Filipino, development worker, human rights defender, researcher and journalist. He worked with various non-government organizations helping the poor, deprived and oppressed Filipinos in the homeland in the field of organizational development, projects management, advocacy and communications. He is a columnist of two daily newspapers in Mindanao and vice president of Pangdaigdigang Alyansa ng Pilipino, Inc. (PAPI)-an affiliate of the Worldwide Filipino Alliance (WFA).

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SUMMARIES

OFWs bringing Christmas cheers for Lumad kids
by Emmanuel C. Roldan (Philippines)

DAVAO City—Christmas is gift-giving. As children, we are taught in our basic catechesis that Christmas is the birthday of the Lord Jesus who was sent by the Father to redeem the world. He is the biggest gift God has given to the world as beautifully written in the Holy Book, “He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son”. As God was the first giver of gift we are told to respond in our little ways.

HEALTH Corner: Eating Fruits

We all think eating fruits means just buying fruits, cutting it and just popping it into our mouths. It’s not so easy as you think. It’s important to know how and when to eat.

What is the correct way of eating fruits?

• IT MEANS NOT EATING FRUITS AFTER YOUR MEALS!
• FRUITS SHOULD BE EATEN ON AN EMPTY STOMACH.

If you eat fruit like that, it will play a major role to detoxify your system, supplying you with a great deal of energy for weight loss and other life activities.

General Guidelines for a Filipino Forum in your Area
by Saturnino Z. Respicio, Jr. & P.A. Escalante

1. The Filipino Forum (FilForum) is not a formal organization or association. It is designed to allow participants from diverse backgrounds to meet with other Filipinos, other nationalities and friends, eat a Filipino style breakfast and to discuss issues that concern the Filipino community in a certain area or to touch on topics that are important to the Philippines.

How The Filipino Forum came about: the FILAM Experience
by Saturnino Z. Respicio, Jr.

December 1985 – the Filipino-American Community in San Diego County, California was under siege from bad publicity in the American mainstream press, due to some financial hocus focus by a certain individual(s) of a then Executive Director of the Council of Pilipino-American Organizations of San Diego County; a group of four mulled over how to overcome the situation.

The four: Cecilio Remotigue of Cebu, Oscar Benoya of Cavite, Pat Ambrosio of Sampaloc, Manila, and “Sam” Respicio of Singalong, Manila and Baguio City.

Mga Bagong Bayani – “Nagsusumikap para sa sariling pamilya at upang makatulon g sa kapwa.”by Marjorie C. Palma

Pangunahin sa ating mga layunin kaya nag-aabroad ay upang matustusan ang pangangailangan ng ating mga sariling pamilya na naiwan sa Pilipinas. Ang ilan ay nagsisimula sa mababang sahod at mahirap na trabaho. Pinipilit malampasan ang anumang unos para lamang maisalba ang naghihirap na pamilya. Nagtatrabaho ng higit pa sa 8 oras, ang ilan naman ay nagpa-part time pa kahit pa ito ay ipinagbabawal ng batas sa ilang lugar, katulad na lang dito sa Kuwait. May mga nakausap akong guro at accountant na naging “kasambahay” o “kadama”. Marami nang naisulat tungkol dito. Lahat ay may kanya-kanyang istorya. Nakakalungkot pero kung mapapansin ay puno ng pag-asa.

The Event that Shook the Nation
by Mark Shera Cruz, USA

Ten days after the great flood that claimed the lives of almost a-thousand residents of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City many are still searching for their relatives and loved ones having high hopes to be reunited with them. The moment I saw the pictures on the internet I felt I was stabbed on my heart and broke out into tears as if I lost my loved ones too. A death caused by an illness or a terminal disease might be easier to accept, but a death which could have been prevented is more painful and hard to accept. Seeing your loved ones being washed away by the turbulent flood is a morbid situation.

Hay .... Buhay Abroad Talaga
An OFW going by the name “Maeng Ni” expressed his views about life of an OFW abroad.
Akala ng mga tao na nasa Pilipinas kapag nasa DUBAI ka akala nila madami ka ng pera ng langis. Ang totoo, madami kang utang, dahil credit card lahat ang gamit mo sa pagbili mo ng mga gamit mo. Kailangan mo gumamit ng credit card Kasi naubus na ang cash pinadala sa pinas, kase pag hindi ka nagpadala, iisipin nila nakalimutan mo na sila. Akala nila mayaman ka at marami kang pera kasi buwan-buwan libolibo padala mo walang palya at kapag pumalya iisipin nila baka nagbisyo ka na o may sinusustentuhang iba. Hindi nila alam food allowance na lang ang natitira sayo at pag kinulang pa umuutang pa at lista muna sa malapit na bakala.

Ang Huling Pasko ng Magkakaibigan ‘08
by Melody Casem

‘07. july ng dumating ako ng kuwait. 1st time ako @ sobrang homesick dahil malayo sa pamilya. mahirap ang trabaho @ mababa ang sahod. dahil me day off ako me mga nakikilala akong mga kaibigan, mga kapwa ko dh na katulong ng kapatid ng amo ko. sa dios, anak, pamilya @ kaibigan ako kumukuha ng lakas sa araw araw. masaya akong nakakatulong @ ganun din sila sa akin. marami akong naging kaibigan iba’t ibang lahi.

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How to Use Back Links Correctly?

Image via Wikipedia

This article is consists of twenty-one summaries of articles that are already published at ExpertsColumn of different subject topics. I used them for this project. I wanted to prove that by using back links correctly will attract traffic, readers and search engine crawlers to the article pages. So instead of telling you how to use back links, I just decided to show them to you through this article.

Among the 12 Chinese Zodiac Animals, the Rat was found as the most smart and clever – the reason why the Cat and the Rat had become great enemies until now. There are many versions of stories why the Cat hated the Rat for the rest of his life and also they answered why the Rat had become the first among the twelve Chinese Zodiac Animals.

FCHAR is the scientific arm of The AIDS Institute, a nonprofit organization founded in Florida, with a focus on policy, research, advocacy and education. The Consortium currently comprises 116 members who account for more than 400 recent and ongoing HIV-related studies. The researchers represent seven universities and 12 other research entities across the state, which include researchers from the private sector.

From the time I arrived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines already had produced four presidents - from former presidents Fidel V. Ramos, Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to the newly elected President Benigno Aquino III, still I am in this foreign lands strongly fighting for survival for my extended family and to my beloved country. My youth and strength are already deteriorating. I often feel some joints pains. And yet, still, I am here undecided to go home with other million Filipinos.

The month of January is named for Janus. In Roman mythology, Janus was the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings and endings. He was known as Janus Geminus (twin Janus) with two faces looking in opposite directions. The first hour of the day, the first day of the month and the first month of the year bears his name. Janus is symbolizing the god of change and transitions such as, the progression of past to future, of one condition and of one vision to another. And because Janus symbolizes them, the making of New Year’s resolutions had become a tradition of the season. People begin to think of what they would like to change for the next year. They make resolutions for everything they can think of. And of course, I also did it the same thing as well.

Networking is a place for people who want to learn the real world skills of an entrepreneur, rather than the skills of an employee who wants to become a highly paid mid-level manager in the corporate world. Networking is really a business school that teaches values not found in traditional business schools. Values such as the best way is to teach yourself and other people to become business owners than teach them to be a loyal employee working for the rich and big companies.

DXN is a Global Business. It can be done by part time or full time. At DXN, you can work from home with very low overhead, risk free, flexible hours, no boss and no geographical limitations - with your DXN ID card you can do the business worldwide. It is a proven business system – like a franchise that has helped millions of independent entrepreneurs around the world in realizing their dreams to come true. DXN represents the finest products with 100% satisfaction guarantee. You can sponsor people into the business and even train them to run their own DXN business, which is an effective way of leveraging your time. DXN helps ordinary people earn extraordinary income.

We, writers are also considered as entrepreneurs and businessmen. Our products are in the form of articles, photos and videos and other awesome stuff that we always love to share to other net surfers across the Internet. Normally we always give enough time to create them before we can offer them to some paying sites. And when they are accepted for publication, our next move is not only to sit down but to promote them. We applied different methods to bring them out and reach people across the net.

Inside the Live Writer, I created a road map and bridges manually to connect my blog sites with the Live Writer Windows and when it was done, I let Live Writer determined what photos I should use for this project according to the article I had written for the experiment including keywords for the Search Engines Optimization, when it was done I had to use tags and the tags I used here were the categories that those 200 articles fall such as: Business, Celebrities, Family, Fiction Writing, Health, History, Money saving tips, News, Opinions, Philosophy, Religion, Reviews, Saudi Arabia, Science and Writing.

Delicious is not just a sweet word. It is a name of another awesome social book marking web service for storing, sharing and discovering web bookmarks with over five million users. It caters your favorite's article pages, website pages, blog site pages, movies, music videos, photos and other imaginable stuff that you owned, other pages you liked and loved. If you will have the interest to try Delicious for your sharing activities, the site is open to everyone who loves discovering awesome websites and article pages.

At the start of December 2011, my goal was to publish at least 200 articles at Wikinut before the end of this year. I worked hard to complete my promise. Here I learned a lesson – that when a promise is made problem will follow. And that problem will measure how far I could keep my promise. The first two weeks of December this year, I did not write continuously for Wikinut due to of my job that need my immediate concentration. First time I had experienced to work with Inventory. And I learned that inventory of available goods is done yearly during the month of December.

Before the circumcision was initiated, Joseph and Mary were asked about the name of the child - it was Joseph who replied, "Jesus." And then the circumcision followed by using a very sharp knife because at that time there was no scissors yet and no anesthesia. And Jesus had cried vehemently of great pains. After the circumcision was done, the couple left the place and headed to Bethlehem, Judea's census section to register Jesus. However,Joseph and Mary immediately left the place and went home when they spotted that some soldiers sent by King Herod - instructing the census people to include the names of all children, their parents and date of births of all children born during that certain period. This will answer why there was no record about Jesus Christ's birth date.

For the benefits of new would-be columnists, ExpertsColumn is consists of columns written by its member contributors - the columnists based on various areas such as technology, education, cars, gaming, finance, health, lifestyle and etc. with each covering all the aspects of the respective slot. According to the site, its aim of developing the site is to match with an ever growing demand of information by providing valuable information on the wide range of topics. Experts column.com is open for those who have anything to write. They can show up their talents on writing on the space created for them by the site and at the same time they can earn revenue.

Anyone who plans to venture business should possess the knowledge on how to manage his money and other resources. He has to learn and improve his financial intelligence on how to making more money, protecting his money, budgeting his money, leveraging his money and to improving his financial information.

I am already in my 50s but the memories of my past life are still haunting me though they are exciting and memorable. Those times I was swimming with friends at the white beaches: it was so alluring to feel, to touch and feel the sea breeze on my body and met beautiful young women of my age! I was eighteen and was attending a party that night. I was standing on the corner of the dance floor when a beautiful lady came around. She was dressed in red with long hair down her back. Her eyes were full of life, love and expectation.

Last February 2011, I published a short review about Factoidz at Triond. I highlighted the site as a leading community of writers who produce top-quality, highly-trafficked and widely distributed articles on factual and informational topics. Their commitment is to provide timely, fresh and well-written content to their dedicated reader base as well as people seeking information on the Web at large.

In my first week of work in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – one thing that came to my mind was to take some trips outside the city. I wanted to visit some of the historical places, including mountains of rock and mountains of sand dunes, which are good places for excursions on weekends and holidays. It was a Friday. With my peers, we visited on some of Riyadh’s treks. First was a trip to Hidden Valley.  At five-thirty in the morning, we started our trip as no-one wants to drive under the sun.

I still remember I started my blogging hobby five years ago at Word Press. My blog was intended only for limited audience. Mostly of my published blog articles there were based from my personal experiences. However, after those two long years on blogging, I focused on writing blog articles intended to general audience. From that time on blogging had become my favorite hobby.

The fear and doubt are some of the human weaknesses. They can cause failure – in our love life, our daily life and our dreams to come true. Recently I attended training and seminar at Olaya, Riyadh City hosted by the Daxen Diamond Team in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The said training and seminar are free to enjoy by all its Daxen members and distributors here in KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and also for all the Daxen members and distributors around the world.

Christians in Saudi Arabia can celebrate Christmas too. As a matter of fact, they can exercise their faith in the Kingdom. However, they cannot exercise it publicly instead, they should observe it inside the home or inside the Embassies, Consulates or in a chosen safe place. Who are these Christians in Saudi Arabia - they are the people who are members of different groups of faiths under the umbrella of Christianity such as Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans or Baptists, Fundamentalist Christianity, Pietism, Evangelicalism, Pentecostalism, Holiness movement, United and uniting churches, Restoration Movement, Jesus is Lord, Christ the King, Church of Christ, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and many more.

Your Blog can be your storefront of all the things you loved to share across the Internet. Blog is very helpful for your writing hobby, for your business and for socializing to people around the world. And to create a blog at blogger, the steps are easy as one, two and three. Just recently, I noticed that Blogger has made some changes on their blog platform. Some of the helping tools or the blogger widgets to enhance a blog site were already deleted. However, anyone can still create a blog on their site.

Everyday million of people are surfing and browsing out the Internet to spot some interesting things such as books,Internet games, fresh news, fresh articles, people, celebrities,new inventions, new products, music, movies, places and other imaginable things that people love to touch, read, hear, smell, taste and watch. Many websites are widely used not only for socializing but also for business purposes. Now many colleges and universities are already offering different courses available online such as accounting, banking and finance, article writing, short story writing, Network marketing training and seminars and many more.

Paddy Power: Betting Company Sweats Over Early Payout on ROMNEY

Image by Alan Stanton via Flickr

While Romney remains the favorite for the Republican nomination his odds have taken a significant slide from 1/14 to 2/5, while Gingrich’s odds have been chopped from 6/1 before the South Carolina Primary to 2/1. Following Newt Gingrich’s win in South Carolina, Europe’s largest betting company Paddy Power is sweating over its decision on Friday to pay out early on Mitt Romney winning the Republican nomination.

For next weeks Florida Primary, Romney and Gingrich are joint 5/6 favorites for the win with Ron Paul and Rick Santorum both at a very unlikely 66/1 to record their first victory of the campaign.

A spokesman for Paddy Power said “It looks as though we could have jumped the gun too soon by paying out on Romney. Newt Gingrich is continuing to build momentum and if he succeeds we could end up with some very expensive pie on our face!”

Updates of the said Nominations

Republican Presidential Nomination

• 2/5 Mitt Romney
• 2/1 Newt Gingrich
• 16/1 Ron Paul
• 50/1 Rick Santorum

Florida Primary

• 5/6 Mitt Romney
• 5/6 Newt Gingrich
• 66/1 Ron Paul
• 66/1 Rick Santorum

Next President (Winning Candidate)

• 4/6 Barack Obama
• 5/2 Mitt Romney
• 11/2 Newt Gingrich
• 40/1 Ron Paul
• 50/1 Hillary Clinton

100/1 Rick Santorum

Meanwhile, Paddy Power is also taking bets on what cliché President Barack Obama will say first during this Tuesday’s State of the Union speech. The favorite is “We have more work to do” at 8/1 followed by “Health Care Reform” at 10/1 while “Life is like a box of chocolates” is at a massive 250/1 to be his first utterance tomorrow evening. Tonight at 9PM (US-Time) you can watch the President Barack Obama live Union Speech at YouTube.

• 8/1 We have more work to do
• 10/1 Health Care reform
• 10/1 As I stand here today
• 12/1 Fundamental belief
• 12/1 God Bless America
• 12/1 Crossroads of history
• 12/1 Defining moment
• 12/1 Make Washington work
• 14/1 Common purpose
• 16/1 Pursuit of happiness
• 16/1 Building a better America
• 16/1 Reduce the deficit
• 18/1 War on terror
• 18/1 It won't be easy
• 18/1 Hungry for change
• 18/1 My civil liberties
• 20/1 Honour for me
• 20/1 I have a dream
• 20/1 Willing to listen to each other
• 20/1 Yes, we can
• 20/1 Don't get me wrong
• 25/1 Hard to believe
• 25/1 I'm fired up
• 25/1 Withdraw our troops
• 25/1 There are better days ahead
• 25/1 Do Nothing Congress
• 25/1 We'll have to make hard choices
• 25/1 We can be one people
• 25/1 A new direction
• 33/1 For far too long
• 33/1 Safe from harm
• 33/1 Jobs to the jobless
• 33/1 Reshapes our economy
• 40/1 Deepest gratitude
• 40/1 Greatness of our nation
• 40/1 Possibilities of this nation
• 40/1 Florida Primary
• 50/1 Believe in what this country can be
• 50/1 Unity is the great need of the hour
• 50/1 In the face of despair, you believe there can be hope
• 50/1 We can work together to keep our country safe
• 50/1 Abiding faith
• 66/1 Brighter day will come
• 66/1 Publish tax returns
• 66/1 Washington has a long way to go
• 80/1 Overcome the adversity
• 80/1 Bloated federal government
• 100/1 Diversity of my heritage
• 100/1 Yes, we might
• 250/1 Life is like a box of chocolates

About Paddy Power

Paddy Power is Ireland’s largest bookmaker and a leading provider of gaming services in the UK, Australia and Ireland. Founded in 1988 Paddy Power is a publicly quoted company and is listed on both the Irish and London Stock Exchanges. Its website www.paddypowerplc.com

Paddy Power Contact Details:

Féilim Mac An Iomaire
Paddy Power plc
Tel: ++353 87 160 7024
Feilim.macaniomaire@paddypower.com

To read my previous article visit PhilHealth Circular No. 022 is an Added Burden to The Millions of OFWs Worldwide 

Reasons Why Cat and Rat are Enemies

It was believed that when President Richard Nixon arrived in China in 1972, he met a certain man Mr. Yu - a smart and clever person. The president asked the man the riddle said, "There are 12 items you can give to 1.2 billion Chinese. Do you know what they are?"

Mr. Yu immediately answered, "Yes. They are the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals Mr. President, Sir ." And he named them one by one:

• Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig

Mr. Yu gave a perfect and very correct answer because those 1.2 billion Chinese in that time were all born under the 12 Chinese Zodiac Animals. I decided not to give the identity for each animals instead, I just included the links leading to the site where I got the information.

The Reason Why Cat and Rat are Great Enemies

Here I used the three version of stories why the two had become enemies. Also those stories will answer why the Rat had become the first animal in the Chinese Zodiac.

First version of the story was said: Cat and Rat were the worst swimmers in the animal kingdom. Although they were poor swimmers, they were both quite intelligent. To get to the meeting called by the Jade Emperor, they had to cross a river to reach the meeting place. The Jade Emperor had also decreed that the years on the calendar would be named for each animal as they arrived to the meeting. Cat and Rat decided that the best and fastest way to cross the river was to hop on the back of Ox. Ox, being naïve and good-natured, agreed to carry them both across. Midway across the river, Rat pushed Cat into the water. Then as Ox neared the other side of the river, Rat jumped ahead and reached the shore first. So he claimed first place in the competition and the zodiac.

Second Version of The Story How The Rat Claimed The First Place

Image via Commons Wikimedia

During the registration day, Rat met up with the Ox. He thought to himself "Ox is the fastest, strongest animal!" So the little Rat played a trick on the Ox. He asked the Ox if he would like to listen to him sing. The Rat opened his mouth but said nothing. "How was that?" he asked the Ox and of course he replied "Sorry little Rat, I didn't hear you." The Rat told the Ox to let him jump onto his back so that he could sing it more clearly, and the Ox agreed. Soon without knowing, the Ox was walking to the signing post, forgetting the Rat on his back. When they reached there, the Rat jumped off and claimed first place. The Ox following and the rest.

Third Version of The Story

God called the animals to a banquet that night. The Rat, who loved to play tricks on his neighbor, told the cat that the banquet was on the day after tomorrow. The Cat believed his neighbor the Rat and slept whilst dreaming of the banquet. The next day, the rat arrived first followed by the ox, the tiger and the rest of the animals. The order of the animals was decided by the order that they arrived. The Cat was devastated and vowed that he would always hate the Rat. Those were the reasons: First the Rat pushed the Cat into the river, second the Rat lied.

How to Say Happy New Year in Chinese

I quoted them from yahoo answer such as:

• Xin Nian Kuai Le， 新年快乐 (Standard Mandarin - the most widely used by Chinese)
• Gong Hei Fard Choy， 恭喜发财 (Cantonese - Mainly Hong Kong and Macau)
• Xing Ni Ju Yi, 新年如意 (Teochew/ Hokkien - Mainly in South East Asia and Taiwan)

For more details visit the following sources links:

• Wikipedia
• Wikimedia Commons
• Yahoo Answers

To read my previous article visit A Non-profit Organization (FCHAR) Gathered to Advance a Collaborative HIV/AIDS Research