The Scourge of AIDS in Africa Persists

 

The innermost panels of 

"The Keiskamma Altarpiece" mix photography with embroidery. 

Anthea Pokroy/Keiskamma Trust

The other day I was jolted by an article in the Toronto Star about AIDS/HIV in Africa. Nearly two decades ago ago we heard regularly about the high mortality rate in a number of African nations, leaving tens of thousands of children as orphans. These children often ended up in the care of grandmothers who were already dealing with the catastrophic loss of multiple loved ones. 

Elementary school children in rural Eswatini in a Canadian built classroom. One in four Swazi children has lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS. Danielle Burton photo

The Star article was about the tiny nation of Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, where AIDS is still a scourge, with children and teens regularly infected by sexual assaults from predatory men who are themselves are infected. 

Eswatini has attacked the virus vigorously. The country of 1.2 million has exceeded targets on HIV-treatment coverage and prevention of mother-to-child transmission, according to United Nations monitoring. Internationally funded clinics offer free access to testing and to antiretroviral medications that can keep people infected with HIV healthy for decades.

But the country still has the highest prevalence rate of HIV in the world. Almost one in three Swazi adults are living with the virus compared to one in five adults in the next most afflicted countries: Lesotho, Botswana and South Africa.

We know that organizations such as the Gates Foundation have committed billions of dollars to addressing AIDS/HIV in Africa yet the disease persists.

More than 100 of those African grandmothers created a huge mural of commemoration called the Keiskamma Altarpiece. It toured North America in 2006 and we went to see it when it was at St. James Anglican Cathedral in Toronto as part of the international AIDS conference. As we viewed it a group of those women brought to Canada by Anglican grandmothers arrived and broke into tears and wailing and prayer. Their lament was visceral and moving -- unforgettable. 

While our interest and awareness may have waned over time but it is important to keep this terrible reality in our prayers. 

Girls play in a preschool in Malkerns, Eswatini with toys donated by Canadian visitors. Young women are three times more likely to contract HIV/AIDS as young men.