'AIDS Has a Woman's Face': Lewis: UN special envoy laments loss of female population in Africa

Ottawa Citizen (CANADA); February 15, 2003; Pg. D4
By Jean-Francois Bertrand

Children desperately need people to lead them as they explore "the inequities of this lunatic world," Stephen Lewis, the United Nations' special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, told 2,000 teachers yesterday.

The former leader of the Ontario NDP was the keynote speaker at the Ottawa-Carleton Elementary Teachers Federation professional development day, held at the Congress Centre. Paul Doucet, vice-president of the federation, said that one goal of the meeting was to highlight wider issues, such as the AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa. "AIDS has a woman's face," said Mr. Lewis. "It's the most frightening part of the pandemic, and it makes me angry." He said that in the 15-to-49 age bracket, 29 million Africans have AIDS, and 57 per cent of them are women. Of Africans aged 15 to 24, nine million have AIDS, two-thirds of them women. "There has never been such an assault on gender historically. AIDS is depopulating the continent of women."

Mr. Lewis told Ottawa's public elementary teachers that Zambia is losing 2,000 teachers annually, while only 1,000 new teachers are entering the job market. The teachers were told that AIDS has made 11 million orphans in Africa, and the figure could reach 20 million by 2010.

He noted there are affordable generic antiretroviral drugs available that can add years to the live of AIDS patients. Yet, "for a perverse reason, the Western world refuses to provide the resources which could break the back of the pandemic. In the blink of an eye, there's $100 billion for a war against Iraq. We ask for $10 billion a year."

During recent trips to Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi, countries where 15 million are at risk of famine, Mr. Lewis learned that the food crisis was caused not by drought but by AIDS. "We lost seven million agricultural workers in sub-Saharan Africa."

Teacher Terry Burborough believes the facts from Mr. Lewis's "powerful, moving, galvanizing" address will help him teach his Grade 6 students at Broadview Public School.