Monthly Archive 12/11/2013

Nelson Mandela: They Just Don’t Make Them Like That Anymore

A Tribute to Nelson Mandela:

Last Thursday, Former South African president, Nelson Mandela took a bow and exited the earth stage leaving a grief stricken world united in anguish and sorrow. W.O.M.E.N joins our global family in mourning the passing of this truly unique and one-of-a-kind legend of our times. Nelson Mandela fought many wars including racial oppression. Perhaps though, the fight that he took on with an unprecedented and unabashed tenacity even as he grew frailer with advancing age; the fight that touched more lives all around the world than any other, was his war on AIDS and eliminating stigma.

In 2005, Nelson Mandela’s only surviving son, Makgatho Mandela, died of AIDS at the age of 54. Almost immediately, Mandela publicly announced this in a statement that not only sent shockwaves indeed, but also begun shattering the darkly tinted heavy glass of stigma, shame and silence that had encased the AIDS phenomenon in South Africa. He had learnt of his son’s HIV status barely six months ago.

“Today, a member of my family died because of AIDS”, he said and added,   “I have been saying for more than three years that we should speak openly about HIV/AIDS and not hide it away. It is the only way in which it will become an ordinary disease – just like TB and just like cancer”. Mandela believed that “If we speak about it, people will stop thinking that it is something people will go to hell for and never see heaven”.

Yet Mandela’s fight against the social stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS did not begin on the day his son died.  In 2002, he paid a very public visit to Zackie Achmat, an AIDS activist who had refused to take antiretroviral drugs until the government made them publicly available. Before that, a full five years before his son would die from AIDS related causes, Mandela attended a conference and the closing speech he delivered will forever remain monumental.

By 2000, South Africa had the world’s highest number of infected persons at a whopping 24%, nearly 4 million people, between the ages of 15-49. In July that year, at the 13^th International AIDS Conference in Durban, the powerful words of Edwin Cameron, a judge with AIDS and Nkosi Johnson, an 11 year old boy who died two years later, painfully ravaged by the disease, broke the silence on HIV/AIDS  and openly forced it into the national conversation. But it was Mandela’s closing speech at that conference that changed the AIDS agenda forever.

Nelson Mandela’s advocacy for AIDS became the most important work of his foundation, a charity he named 46664 after his Robben Island prison number. The charity has raised funds and awareness through huge international concerts at which some of the world’s biggest stars such as Beyoncé have performed. As he became more fragile, he turned down all public appearances and speaking engagements except those that had to do with AIDS.

 

 

 

 

Mandela knew he had great stature in the world. He was aware that he evoked a sense of hero worship from the high and mighty to the meek and lowly throughout the world. He chose to use his far reaching influence to change the course of treatment, both socially and medically, for AIDS victims in his country and subsequently, the world over. In South Africa, and slowly around the world, social stigma on AIDS begun to suffer severe erosion, because Nelson Mandela stood up and spoke out.

 

 

 

Yes, Nelson Mandela was a great man, a saint that lived among us for too short a while and they just don’t make them like that anymore.

Adios, Madiba and fare thee well!

 

 

The Tree of Life Celebration – World AIDS Sunday at Metropolitan Interdenominational Church

W.O.M.E.N. took part in this past Sunday’s December 1^st  World AIDS Day events in which Rev. Edwin Sanders of Metropolitan Interdenominational Church, continued its tradition, now in its tenth year, of infusing the spirit of Christmas into its World AIDS Sunday Community Celebration service. The ceremony calls in part, for placing white ribbons for those who have died from AIDS-related complications and red for those living with HIV/AIDS, calling the names of each person represented by a ribbon, all on a tree fondly referred to as the “Tree of Life”.

Celebrate World AIDS Day – December 1, 2013 With a Positive Action

 

HIV impacts all of us in one way or another.  Here in the US, more than a million people are living with HIV. These people are all related to someone in one way or another: mother, sister, aunt, friend, cousin, brother, dad, uncle, etc. The federal theme for World AIDS Day 2013, Shared Responsibility- Strengthening Results For an AIDS-FREE Generation. We need to exert more pressure on ourselves, triple all our efforts, to ensure we completely eradicate HIV and AIDS.

And, yes, it can be done. Testing, of course, remains key.     This is the first positive step that all of us can take. Get tested. Know your status. Remember, HIV does not discriminate across gender, race or age.

This is also in line with the general global theme,  Getting To  Zero, for the celebrations. Getting To  Zero reflects the universal goal of achieving a new world status of zero new infections, zero new babies born with HIV and zero deaths resulting from HIV and AIDS related complications. It is probably not in doubt that we all share this desire but the only way to address it is by getting tested.  The good news is that when people test negative, they usually do everything they can to maintain that status. This protective behavior forms a large part of the shared responsibility towards a common goal of Getting to Zero.

It therefore remains very important and cannot be over-emphasized: Get tested today.

W.O.M.E.N. provides HIV testing and counseling Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 615-256-3882 to book your appointment today.