Bono Receives International Freedom Award for Work on African AIDS Epidemic
Irish rock star Bono on Monday received the International Freedom Award from the National Civil Rights Museum for his work promoting greater involvement from Western nations in the fight against HIV/AIDS and poverty in Africa, the AP/Yahoo! News reports (Baird, AP/Yahoo! News, 10/18). Bono -- who founded the AIDS, debt relief and trade advocacy group DATA -- has urged developed nations to do more to fight HIV/AIDS and poverty in Africa by meeting with heads of state and beginning a grassroots campaign in the United States to raise awareness of the issues (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 5/18). In a speech to 3,500 high school students before the ceremony, Bono said that the "kind of energy young people brought to the civil rights movement is needed in the fight against AIDS," according to the AP/Yahoo! News. "What are the blind spots of our age, of these times? What might you help the rest of us to see?" Bono asked, adding, "It might be something as simple as the idea that every human life, no matter where they live, has equal worth." Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) received the National Freedom Award for his role in the civil rights movement during the 1960s (AP/Yahoo! News, 10/18).
An interview with Bono, the first in the Kaiser Family Foundation's series "Kaiser Conversations on Health," is available online. Hosted by former ABC News Correspondent and Kaiser Family Foundation Vice President and Senior Adviser for Communications Jackie Judd, "Kaiser Conversations on Health" is a series on major health issues featuring leading newsmakers.