Zambian HIV/AIDS Advocate Calls Attention to AIDS Orphans, Truck Drivers During Visit to England
Princess Kasune Zulu, an HIV-positive international AIDS advocate from Zambia, on Thursday spoke at the Cambridge Theological Federation in Cambridge, England, about the "realities of AIDS in her increasingly benighted continent," London's Daily Telegraph reports. Zulu, who became an AIDS orphan at age 14 and now hosts a radio program in Zambia dedicated to helping listeners with HIV/AIDS address problems in their lives, last week wrote a letter to the Daily Telegraph calling attention to Africa's AIDS orphans. During her talk in Cambridge, Zulu described how she has dressed up as a sex worker to "test the willpower" of Africa's long-distance truck drivers, a population that has been identified as "key carriers" of HIV, according to the Telegraph (Woods, Daily Telegraph, 1/15). Zulu said, "We are late in tackling the AIDS epidemic, but we can stop it," adding that a "key to turning things around" is educating and empowering women because "not enough of them have their own home or a job which would help them assert themselves" (Taylor, Guardian, 1/15). Zulu said, "AIDS knows no borders; it doesn't respect titles or differentiate between color or creed. It's not just an African problem, it is a world problem and we need to make sure that this generation of AIDS orphans doesn't get infected" (Daily Telegraph, 1/15). Zulu on Monday is scheduled to speak -- alongside the British Secretary of State for Development Hillary Benn -- at an AIDS conference at the House of Commons. Zulu also hopes to meet with Prime Minister Tony Blair during her visit, the Guardian reports (Guardian, 1/15).
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