Nkosi Johnson liked to tell people, "I am a very lucky boy."
The words came from a child who received a death sentence while he was still in his mother's womb: He was born HIV-infected in South Africa, a country where generations are falling to an illness for which only the richest 10 percent can afford any medication. Where roughly 5 million adults have HIV or AIDS and most children born with it die before they are 3 years old. Where 1,700 new HIV infections are reported daily.
He survived to the relatively ripe old age of 12 on a diet of love and good food, living long enough to address a world AIDS conference (speaking in
German), befriend world leaders and put a face on the tidal wave of children who are similarly afflicted in his homeland.
Friday, his adoptive mother, Gail Johnson, was in Salt Lake City to offer thanks to people who had donated money that helped her buy land for one of the care centers she operates and to talk about the disease that is crippling a continent. She was a featured speaker at the 4Life conference at the Salt Palace, a three-day event that attracted more than 600 4Life dealers. 4Life makes dietary supplements.
His birth mother abandoned him when he was little. Johnson worked in the care center where he was left, and she took him home and nurtured him. Like many children in South Africa with HIV, he also had tuberculosis, what Johnson called a "close marriage" of two dreadful illnesses.
People are busy arguing, she said, about how to get the so-called "triple therapies," retroviral treatments, to people who have HIV and AIDS. The reality is most South Africans will not be able to afford them, even at the steepest-discount prices. And if the drugs were given to them, it would be a partial solution: "You cannot give someone these medications on an empty stomach" and the poorest majority of the country struggles to provide food for itself.
She focused on giving her son other things: Regular, balanced meals, acceptance and hygienic conditions. When she opened her own care centers, called Nkosi's Havens — she now cares for 13 women and 25 children, all HIV-positive — she began to provide those things to the residents, as well, funded by private donations.
The havens have a spirit of acceptance and hope, she said, an ambience that is joyous. Mothers who will die of the disease also know that when it happens, their children will be cared for.
She believes that perhaps the most important thing she gave Nkosi, though, is the right to be honest about his health status. The vast majority of people in South Africa who have HIV/AIDS try to hide it, she said, because of discrimination. "He was brought up not living a lie."
In fact, it was a national controversy when she fought to have her son admitted to public school.
4Life dealers heard about Nkosi, who had been interviewed by Peter Jennings and featured prominently on shows worldwide, and raised money to buy the land for her latest care center. Still undeveloped, it will one day be a working farm where many more women and children with HIV/AIDS can grow their own fruits and vegetables, learn trades like pottery and furniture-making.
E-mail: lois@desnews.com