How HIV/AIDS Changed My Life

I was a young adult when medicines to treat HIV/AIDS were discovered. Everyone seemed to release a collective sigh of relief. Dating became less scary and people could enter relationships with less trepidation. The virus still invoked fear, but not terror...at least not in the United States. My junior year of college I studied abroad in Zimbabwe. The Program Director opened orientation like this, "I know that you are all young adults with raging hormones. Zimbabwe is not the country in which to sow your oats. The HIV/AIDS rate is 25%. That means 1 in 4 people have the virus." You could hear a pin drop.

Of course being young adults, we soon forgot her advice and went about our merry ways. Our first month in the country was spent living in a village. I must say, the village was my favorite place in which to live. I really bonded with my family. I found my host mother especially endearing. Her laugh was loud and bombastic. She was strong and proud. I loved this woman with whom I could only barely communicate. My limited Shona had reduced our exchanges to salutations and expressions of gratitude. All of our conversations were translated by my host siblings or father. I took comfort though in just sitting with her and "helping" her to do her daily chores.

The air quotes are necessary, because I am confident that my efforts had the opposite effect. Despite being clearly useless, my mother humored me and allowed me to "help" her every time I offered. My first offer of assistance came while watching my mother chop wood. I gestured to her that I wanted to help. She shrugged off my offer with a smile and continued her work. After needling her, she let me try. Taking the ax from her hands, I was shocked by the heft of it. I'm a city girl. I've never chopped wood. I was convinced though, that my strengthen and youth could overcome my inexperience. I hit the wood with all of my might and the ax hit back. I dropped the ax in pain and was devastated to find that I had not even nicked the wood. My mother let out a hearty laugh that instantly bound me to her. She picked up the ax and resumed her work with renewed vigor. Each chop was peppered with a giggle and an infrequent glance my way. I hovered nearby, nursing my pride and my burning hands, enjoying both the pleasure and pain of a bond formed over a stump of wood.

Despite the language barrier, I formed a bond with many people in my village and even after my month ended, I went back several times to visit my family. It was during one of those visits that my elder sister told me of a fellow villager who'd died of fever. I began hearing stories about other mysterious ailments causing death throughout the village. I thought the explanations were odd, but assumed their meanings were lost in translation.

I lived in a "high-density area" for my next month (like the suburbs). While living there I came to understand the meaning behind my sister's coded messages. One day, my host mother came home and announced with a voice tinged with anger, "I am so sick of going to funerals. I am tired of this virus. Everyday it's another funeral. I can't take much more of this." I felt at once saddened and shocked. I never gave a second thought to her donning a fancy hat everyday. I thought she just liked dressing up. I sat in glum silence feeling the waves of anger emanating from a woman who'd clearly had enough but for whom quitting was not an option.

That day changed my life. I had fallen in love with the people of Zimbabwe. They had been kind, warm, and welcoming and it outraged me that they were dying from a disease that was treatable but to whom  medicines were unattainable because of the high cost. It was in Zimbabwe that I changed course. I became committed to fighting HIV/AIDS and for expanding access to life-saving medication.

I am proud to be among one of many who have worked towards eliminating the epidemic and celebrate the progress the international community has made in addressing HIV/AIDS:

•  new HIV infections have fallen 35% since 2000;
• AIDS-related deaths have declined 42% since the peak in 2004;
• tuberculosis-related deaths among HIV-positive people has decreased by 33% since 2004; and 
• roughly 40% of all HIV-positive people are receiving life saving medicines, up from less than 1% in 2000.

Despite these advances, two million people continue to contract the virus every year. Curbing these new infections will require a multi-sector collaborative approach.The Sustainable Development Goals are a tacit acknowledgement that global challenges, like HIV/AIDS, cannot be resolved in isolation and without addressing underlying factors like hunger, inadequate access to clean water and sanitation, poverty, and gender inequities. Now that the international community has made the commitment to eliminate HIV/AIDS and address their contributing factors, it's time for all stakeholders to join forces and develop innovative solutions for realizing the SDGs. I for one am eager to carry out this challenge in honor of the people who helped me chart my life's course.