Miami Herald - Saturday, July 31, 2004
Donna Gehrke-White, dgehrke@herald.com

He's not going on safari to see giraffes and elephants, though. Valladares, 66, and his wife, Dr. Jacqueline Junco-Valladares, 38, a University of Miami physician and immunology researcher, are on a mission to help fight the AIDS epidemic in Mozambique. The Coral Gables couple are paying their own way to give AIDS-prevention seminars to government and church leaders, visit hospitals, conduct TV and newspaper interviews and hand out 2,500 booklets that Junco-Valladares wrote in Portuguese, Mozambique's official language.

"It's the seed we are going to plant," says Valladares. "We want to use prevention at the earliest stage so we can end this global epidemic."

The doctors are concentrating on Sub-Saharan Africa, which has about two-thirds of the world's AIDS cases, 25 million infected people.

In Mozambique, on Africa's southern coast on the Indian Ocean, 13.6 percent of the population between 15 and 49 tests positive for HIV virus, and 57,000 people died from AIDS last year, according to the nation's Ministry of Health.

Many in Mozambique, Valladares says, still don't know how to avoid getting the deadly virus. Myths abound, such as the mistaken belief throughout Africa that infected men can "cure" themselves by sleeping with virgins. This, of course, infects more young women. In fact, the fastest growth of HIV infection in Sub-Saharan Africa is among women.

The doctors want to talk about basic AIDS-prevention such as abstinence, using condoms for safe sex and advising HIV-infected mothers to refrain from breast-feeding.

They'll be talking to government and religious leaders -- especially those who work with young people -- to spread the word on how people can avoid getting the AIDS virus. "We want to reach young people who are sexually active," says Junco-Valladares. "These are the people who are at risk. Half of all new infections occur among young people. Young people are the greatest hope in changing the course of the epidemic."

They are going to Mozambique as part of the Christian charity Alfalit International, where Valladares serves on the board. Miami-based Alfalit promotes literacy, health, nutrition and community development in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa.

Alfalit is trying to set up support groups for AIDS victims in Mozambique churches. Valladares and Junco-Valladares also want to enlist churches to help talk about the benefits of monogamy and seeking a spiritual life, to avoid the temptation -- and danger -- of promiscuous sex.

Alfalit just shipped 38,000 books to Mozambique and is hiring a full-time literacy coordinator in Mozambique's capital, Maputo. In Mozambique, 71 percent of women and 40 percent of men are illiterate.

Valladares is convinced that ignorance is what is fueling the AIDS epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa. Once educated, he says, people can learn how to keep healthy and avoid diseases such as AIDS.

The couple are leaving with family their two children, Alexandra, 6, and Daniel, 5. Valladares also has five grown children.

In the past, the doctors have gone on shorter Alfalit trips to Nicaragua, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Bolivia, where they worked with young mothers sentenced to prison after they are caught as "mules" in drug trafficking. "Often their children are jailed with them," Valladares says.

He and his wife say they get satisfaction in helping the poor. As Cuban immigrants, they feel blessed to live in the United States, where they had the opportunity to go to medical school and become doctors.

"I came here as a immigrant and I feel I should give back," Valladares says.

Adds his wife: "I am following Christ's example. He was out there with the lepers, touching them and I have to do the same -- AIDS is like leprosy."
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