Bangkok Post - June 4, 2001

Nkosi Johnson, a young South African boy who contracted HIV while still in his mother's womb, became the voice of those children who like him are HIV's most tragic victims. He spoke for many who died before they even had a chance even to make their voices heard. Nkosi's struggle to convince South Africans, and ultimately the whole world, that people with HIV/Aids need love and respect, deserves equal attention. It is hard to believe that, 20 years on, some people still are not aware that people battling this disease can continue to function and contribute to their communities if they receive the appropriate medical treatment.

Nkosi was abandoned by his HIV-infected mother at birth. She had neither the financial resources to care for Nkosi nor the strength to defend an innocent child from the bigotry of her own community. Doctors expected death to claim him silently and swiftly. But Nkosi clung to life, and was adopted at two years old by Gail Johnson, who took him into her home and cared for him until the day he died.

The sight of little Nkosi in the spotlight at the world's biggest Aids conference, held in South Africa last year, did more to advance the world community's resolve to fight HIV/Aids than all the men in suits present. "I want people to understand about Aids," Nkosi told the Durban conference. "Care for us and accept us-we are all human beings."

This came as a heavy blow to South African President Thabo Mbeki, who slipped out of the hall before Nkosi stepped up on the stage. Mr Mbeki, who had continued to deny the causal link between HIV and Aids and the role it was playing in a nation with the highest rates of infection in the world, and whose government continues to hinder the provision of drugs to prevent mother-to-child infection at birth, was forced to grudgingly accept reality. The damage that Mr Mbeki's confusing stance has done to the building of awareness of the risks of HIV/Aids infection in South Africa is immeasurable. Nkosi even asked to meet Mr Mbeki to try to convince him of his mistake but was denied.

Nkosi, one of 70,000 South African children living with Aids, struggled bravely against prejudice. He fought to be allowed the right to go school like other children. He helped lay to rest the notion that hugging an infected child would result in catching the disease. Nkosi helped open the hearts and minds of millions to the simple truth that no one is in more desperate need of comforting hugs than a dying child.

In Thailand right now, a million people, 33,000 of them children, are estimated to be infected with HIV. Some 300,000 Thais have already died. Thailand has won praise for its work in controlling the spread of HIV/Aids, but more still needs to be done, particularly in providing affordable access to life-saving drugs.

Nkosi's life was tragically short, but his impact was tremendous. Nobody expected him to live to be 12 years old. When he died in his sleep on Friday, South Africa's National Children's Day, his mother Gail said that he weighed only 10kg, not much more than the day he was born. Despite his frailty, Nkosi demonstrated the power of the human spirit to overcome the obstacles of fear, ignorance and prejudice. He will be sorely missed.

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