Media Credit: Liz Moskowitz Alex Harding, Brielle Payne and Hannah Flory help serve hamburgers and hot dogs for the kick-off rally for Global Health Awareness Week.

The smell of grilled hamburgers lingered over the Speedway Plaza on Monday afternoon as members of Alpha Phi Sigma completed their Global Health Awareness Week rally with a cook-off.

Signs displayed information about tuberculosis and global famine, and social director Brielle Payne, as she handed out information to passers-by about how to get involved in with these health issues.

Members of the pre-medical honor society will donate proceeds from this week to the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative, a research organization that offers AIDS treatment and education in Africa. Members sold $2 T-shirts and hamburgers on Monday and will host other fundraisers throughout the week.

Max Petrie, Alpha Phi Sigma executive adviser, said the group hopes to raise $10,000 this week for the pediatric AIDS program.

"It is absolutely attainable," Petrie said. "We donated $10,000 in the last two years combined, so we really ramped up our efforts for this year."

Alpha Phi Sigma president Sara Adibi also said the casino night will generate a large percentage of their target goal.

"We counted around $600 from the barbecue and we saw a good number of students come out this morning," Adibi said. "This is our third year, so I hope people know who we are and what we are trying to do."

Payne said this week's events will highlight AIDS issues, and will focus on starvation, cholera and tuberculosis throughout the world.

Payne said she expects most of the group's donations to come from ticket sales for Thursday's casino night, which will be held at the McCombs Hall of Honors at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5 if purchased in advance and $7 at the door.

Adibi said she hopes the week alerts students to global issues that affect health care so young people can work to help end major crises like famine in African countries, where one in five children dies of malnutrition.

For Alpha Phi Sigma's second event, immunology professor Miles W. Cloyd from the UT Medical Branch in Galveston will address the problem of infectious disease throughout the world and propose possible solutions tonight in ART 1.102 at 7:30.

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