Zambian Michael Gwaba, who is HIV-positive and alive today because of access to anti-retroviral drugs, is in Seattle this week to ask that Americans pressure the Obama Administration to keep our nation’s promise to help more Africans gain access to life-saving AIDS drugs.
Despite some creative accounting that allows administration officials to keep claiming they are increasing funding for AIDS drugs in Africa, it’s, uh, well, actually not true. More on that in a bit.
by Tom Paulson
Michael Gwaba with John Fawcett and Bob Dickerson of RESULTS, in Belltown
“I’ve come to appeal to the grassroots,” said Gwaba, who lost his brother, wife and infant son to AIDS-related illnesses. He’s in Seattle thanks to the local branch of RESULTS, a nationwide anti-poverty organization.
Gwaba was not always an activist. He says he once thought HIV/AIDS was not his problem, perhaps like some of us who tend to view Africa’s struggle against the pandemic as not our problem. Continue reading