May 12, 2006

AIDS envoy to teach at Mac

Earlier this month Stephen Lewis, United Nations envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, announced he would be stepping down to begin a one-year scholar in residence position at McMaster University.

As a passionate and gifted advocate for Africans living with HIV and AIDS, Lewis has done more than make his mark at the UN. He has also brought attention to the scandal of the AIDS pandemic - how massive inequalities between Africa and the West have led to the needless deaths of millions of people.

In an article for 'Global Future' published today, Lewis highlights how mother-to-child transmission of the virus is commonplace in Africa, and less than 10% of pregnant women have access to drugs that could cut this transmission in half. In the West, mother-to-child infection is less than 1% due to the routine use of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs).

The former diplomat and broadcaster has also brought attention to the gender inequality and "cosmic indifference to women" reflected in HIV/AIDS statistics: of the 28 million people in Africa with the virus, 60% are women. Between the ages of 15-24, this figure is as high as 76%. It is the women, says Lewis, who are pulled out of school to care for sick relatives, who are often forced to marry older men or sell themselves for food, who are the victims of sexual violence.

[Above: Lewis in Zimbabwe: he called the lack of resources in the fight against HIV/AIDS "mass murder by complacency"]

His constant advocacy of women with HIV/AIDS is part of the reason he's stepping down. With African women forming such a huge part of the worldwide pandemic, he spoke to the UN about "the oddity of a white Canadian representing Africa."

"I've been talking to the UN about the appointment of an African, preferably an African woman," he told a press conference at McMaster.

[Above: Princess Kasune Zulu, an HIV/AIDS campaigner from Zambia who also lives with the virus, would make an ideal representative for Africa]

And so Stephen Lewis will be moving into a new chapter of his career, working as part of McMaster's Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition. But his part in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa will continue through his teaching and public speaking.

As he said in an interview with Maclean's last fall, "The breakthrough hasn't come yet - and I don't plan to stop until it has."

Neither should we.

To find out more about Stephen Lewis and people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa, visit The Stephen Lewis Foundation or World Vision's HIV/AIDS page

Photos courtesy of the UN, Wikipedia and World Vision