Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Miami Herald - December 3, 2004
Jacqueline Charles, jcharles@herald.com
"I want to hear about your life," he asked a circle of 11 teenagers, peer counselors with the Foundation for Reproductive Health and Family Education, an independent group working with youths and others at high risk of joining the list of Haiti's HIV/AIDS victims.
"I am a former prostitute," one of the young women responded at the meeting Wednesday. "Because of [the foundation] and the help they gave me, I was able to empower myself. With the information they gave me I was able to take a different path."
With an estimated 210,000 HIV-positive residents, according to the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, Haiti is second only to Brazil in the number of HIV infections in the Western Hemisphere. None of the teens whom Powell met are HIV-positive. Powell's midafternoon discussion with the teens at the offices of the U.S. Agency for International Development followed a chaotic morning in which gunfire erupted near Powell as he met with Haitian government and political leaders at the National Palace in central Port-au-Prince.
The gunfire, which pitted U.N. peacekeepers and Haitian police against a gang loyal to former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, continued throughout the day, leaving four dead and nine wounded.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, accompanying Powell on the half-day visit, said that at no time did Powell consider canceling the visit -- or the ride through the chaotic and volatile streets of the capital to the USAID office for the meeting with the teen HIV/AIDS counselors.
A relaxed looking Powell told them it was important to avoid stigmatizing those with HIV/AIDS and noted that a Bush administration emergency plan for AIDS relief will provide Haiti with some $40 million next year.
"We have to treat those who are ill and make sure those who are ill are getting the medication they need, and we have to give them hope," said Powell, who told the teens about his own encounter with prostate cancer last December. "I have illnesses I have to take care of. They are all the same."
Powell also promised to push the international community to release $1.4 billion in aid that was promised to Haiti -- and to keep talking publicly about the country's battle with HIV/AIDS.
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