How and Why AIDSLink Started

Back in 2004, I took a trip around Southern Africa, accompanying a journalist who was writing about AIDS, helping with her schedule and taking the photographs.

I had already lived almost ten years in South Africa and I knew that AIDS was a problem, but I had no personal involvement. However, that trip opened my eyes to the devastation this microscopic virus is causing and catapulted me into a response.

I met old ladies who had buried all their children and were left to care for their grandchildren. I met children who were left to care for themselves and their younger siblings. I met faithful women who through no fault of their own were living with HIV. And I met men who were dying of AIDS. In the face of their suffering, I ceased to think in terms of guilty and innocent.

Since then, in different parts of the world, I have met people who have been thrown out of their villages, fired from jobs, refused acces to education - all because of a virus that it is relatively hard to transmit.

That trip left some strong impressions. One of which is that we cannot sit idly by. If we don’t do something, then who will? In Africa (and many other places) the church is at the grass roots of society and in an ideal place to respond. In other places, there may be no church, but there are people who have love and compassion in their hearts, who can make a difference, both in terms of prevention and helping those suffering.

The other impression was that this virus is found all over the world, not just in Africa. We need to respond to it all over the world. If someone is suffering or at risk, it doesn’t matter where they live. That led to the birth of AIDSLink International.

Rosemary Hack