HIV & AIDS-A Deep Human Concern

people living with the disease is increasing
with us just as it is increasing worldwide,
where the number of infections outstrips
very significantly the number of people who
leave the scene through sickness, through
death, and leaving behind them families,
leaving behind them loved ones, and very
often, leaving behind them orphans.
Some years ago at a conference a child
addressed the group. The child was about
eight-years-old, and her name was Tsepo
Sitali 2 . She said: “In my language, the name
‘Tsepo’ means ‘Hope’. We are turning to you
grown-up people asking for hope. We are
trying to reach you. We are trying to tell you
something. We are trying to draw attention to
how we feel. What will you do to help us to
realise our dreams. We want you to bring us
hope, hope for the little children of Africa,
and not just of Africa, but of so many other
parts of the world also”.
Well, we have the hope of the changes, the
developments over the last decade. One
of the greatest hopes I think was the vast
global mobilisation against this epidemic.
Unprecedented in human history, the way
the world came together and focused on this
and said, “We must do something about it”.
Concern, resources, personnel, science, the
whole United Nations apparatus, countries,
every sector seemed to come together and
say, “What can we do to respond to this
disease, to reduce its impact, and to head
it off and eventually to cure it?” I’d like to
take the occasion here, to say a sincere word
of thanks to Irish Aid and to the people of
Ireland for their sustained and very generous
commitment to dealing with this epidemic
over the years. The effort from Ireland has
been fantastic, and Ireland is one of the big
contributors, relative to its size, to dealing
with this epidemic worldwide, and we are
extraordinarily grateful for it.
Ireland has, in Dublin, what is called Open
Heart House, and this little book, “Stories
from the Heart”, came from Open Heart
House about a year ago, some of the people
there who are HIV-infected and what they
said about themselves. There are about 20-
25 stories in this. I have read them all a
couple of times, and what struck me was
the hope that was in them. The confidence
that this disease is now being tackled, and
can be overcome. One of the writers, a
man called Charlie, said, “I have so much
to be thankful for”. This, remember, is a
man living with HIV. “I have so much to be
thankful for, and I look forward to a brighter
future full of hope and happiness”. That is
the way so many of the other stories are, and
they are a wonderful tribute to those who
are engaged in Open Heart House: James
O’Connor and his team there, and to all who
support them – I think they deserve a round
of applause.
Long before the new medications were
introduced, and before they were distributed
more and more widely, amongst the people
who are infected, long before even there
was an Open Heart House, we did have
something to work against this disease,
2 Tsepo Sitali, then aged 8, addressed the 11th
International Conference on AIDS and Sexually-
Transmitted Diseases in Africa, in Lusaka, Zambia.
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