Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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San Francisco Examiner - November 30, 1999
Carol Ness
Such is the stigma of AIDS in South Africa that an HIV-positive woman was beaten to death by fearful neighbors, that panels lovingly stitched for a memorial quilt still rarely bear the names of the dead.
An estimated 9 percent of South Africa's people are infected with HIV, part of the pandemic ravaging Africa's southlands: 22.3 million sub-Saharan Africans have HIV, more than two-thirds of all people infected in the world.
On World AIDS Day Wednesday, San Francisco's NAMES Project will be in the disaster zone, putting panels of its famous AIDS Memorial Quilt on display there for the first time, in Capetown.
Alongside the American panels, hand-sewn tributes to lives cut short by the virus, will be quilt pieces made by South Africans for their own NAMES Project, just three years old.
"The South Africans invited us, with the support of Desmond Tutu, to come forward to do what we can to support their efforts," said Andrea Shorter, the NAMES Project Foundation's deputy director, who left Saturday for South Africa with 208 of the quilt's 43,000 panels.
"We do know the AIDS Memorial Quilt can truly affect people's opinions, ideas and feelings about AIDS," Shorter said. "We also want to help call the world's attention to what's happening in Africa."
Shorter, quilt founder Cleve Jones and more than a dozen volunteers are making the trek. The ambitious trip will cost $150,000, according to the NAMES Project, which is working to raise extra money to cover the cost. The perception in the United States that AIDS is no longer a crisis has caused a drop in contributions to organizations like the 14-year-old NAMES Project.
The South African initiative is just one of dozens of events in the Bay Area and thousands around the world planned to draw attention to the ongoing epidemic on the 12th annual World AIDS Day.
In Capetown, the quilt display is planned to coincide with the Parliament of World Religions, an international conference of leaders of different faiths who gather yearly in different countries. Tutu, the anti-apartheid archbishop, played a role in bringing both the Parliament and the quilt to South Africa as part of his ongoing work to heal his nation.
At the Parliament, Jones will be among those presenting a "statement of conscience" calling on rich nations to share their resources with poor AIDS-stricken countries, and on world religious leaders to help end the persecution of people with AIDS. The statement has been signed by hundreds of religious leaders, including Tutu.
"The quilt display at the Parliament is an important part of raising awareness and ending the silence and misconceptions about the disease," Shorter said. Afterward, the quilt panels - both the American and the indigenous - will travel to at least five and maybe seven South African townships, where the stigma and silence about AIDS are crippling efforts to educate people about the virus and prevent its spread, Shorter said.
As an example of the stigma around the epidemic, the NAMES Project brought up the killing of Gugu Dhalamini, a young South African AIDS activist who was beaten to death a year ago by her neighbors after revealing she was HIV positive.
In addition to the South African quilt display, World AIDS Day will be marked by marches, protests, vigils, memorials, symposia and observances all over the world.
One Wednesday in New York, the United Nations will issue a new report on the worldwide orphan crisis created by the epidemic.
In Washington, AIDS Action will release its annual report card rating the federal government's response to the epidemic.
Contributions to the NAMES Project's South Africa initiative, or more information about it, can be arranged by calling (415) 882-5500.
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