Bits and Pieces #2: "Mashinani," Kenya and Maggiore dies.

Mashinani PeerCorps.

On my Heart of Africa Walk, I had tickets to three destinations that all required that I transit through Nairobi, Kenya. That was alright with me because I wanted to meet again with some wonderful young people that I had first met in 2000 following my attendance at the International AIDS Conference that was held in Durban, South Africa. I had stayed at Father D’Agostino’s remarkable Nyumbani Orphanage for babies and children living with AIDS. While there, I worked with students from high schools and universities that volunteered to assist the children. We formed a partnership: TeenAIDS, the students and Nyumbani teens living with AIDS to do street outreach in some of the poorest slums in the city.

On my way through Nairobi in November 2008, I met up with Maximilla Okello and Joshua Omondi, former PeerCorps helpers and now grown with young children of their own. From these meetings, a new group has formed to carry on TeenAIDS’ work educating teens. One thing I was most concerned about: making sure that all maturing youth were educated in the medical facts to avoid HIV -- no matter their gender, religion or importantly, tribal allegiance. Obviously, trying to discuss the sexual transmission of HIV is difficult in conservative cultures. Gender and religious factors complicate the process. However, in Kenya, tribalism is a very strong influence on most peoples’ lives. Just a year ago, hundreds were killed following a bitterly-disputed presidential election with tribalism being the key factor. One of my group told me the harrowing tale of how he only had minutes to spirit his wife and two daughters away by taxi before the killers would arrive at his home.

In mid-December ‘08, a small and dedicated team came together to form a new group “Mashinani PeerCorps” that included Joshua Omondi, Maximilla Okello, Muktar Adan, Michael Musango and John Ndika. They represent different tribes, genders and religions but are committed to fighting HIV. Additionally, Denis Buluma who was one of my best Nyumbani volunteers as a young teen in 2000 is going to join the nucleus of this new outreach group. Using theater, dance and song, a traveling cadre will visit different parts of Kenya to spread the stop-AIDS message. We will post pictures of the group. They need donations to help them organize in different areas.

Shocking Statistics from Kenya:

According to new research from the Kenya AIDS Indicator Survey 2007, being married is considered a high-risk population for HIV. Can this be true? The findings show that married women who stay monogamous during marriage are at higher risk than unmarried women -- even unmarried men -- because it is culturally accepted (in many quarters) for Kenyan husbands to have mistresses or visit prostitutes, before bringing HIV back home.

About two-thirds of HIV-infected adults report currently being in a “union” (defined as marriage or a long term relationship). The study showed that most new infections occur within unions, the opposite of what we AIDS prevention educators advise youth. The extensive survey also found that among sexually active men, those who have never been in a heterosexual union have a prevalence of 2.8%, compared to 7.4% among men currently living in union with a female partner.

A leading expert, Gilbert Iyiera from Ecology Covenant Centre said, “The rampant spread of HIV in marriage is the failure of parents to discuss sex with their children. Sex is a taboo topic when they are growing up: and so when these children mature and get married, sex continues to be a taboo subject.”

I couldn’t have said it better.

Christine Maggiore is Dead.

A friend called me a month ago after hearing on the news that an Anti-AIDS activist had just died. Fifty-three year old Christine Maggiore strongly denied that she was infected by AIDS although all tests said it was so. Christine fervently believed there was no such virus as HIV so she never accepted that she could be dying of something that didn’t exist. A follower of Professor Peter Duesberg of UCLA, she campaigned in the press and a book that HIV/AIDS was a figment of most people’s imagination (I had interviewed Duesberg for my Harvard thesis).

Christine and I actually “debated” the topic in historic Concord, Massachusetts at Orchard House, part of the 19th century School of Philosophy. In a cold meeting room where Emerson, Thoreau and the Alcott sisters discussed topics ranging from philosophy to war, Christine and I put forth our ideas. When I accepted the invitation to speak, I had told Stuart Weeks, the organizer of the three-day event, that my main interest was only to promote the need to educate teens about how to avoid infection – not try to prove it’s real (98% of all scientists and medical authorities accept that HIV as the cause of AIDS). With the assurance that we could use our time at the forum to discuss our work, I agreed to participate.

Before the evening talk, Christine and I shared a vegan dinner at an event sponsor’s home. We started off amicably enough when she showed me a gift she had bought for her child in Boston (a board game) and we talked about family. Then she challenged my work on behalf of a non-existent danger and argued the Duesberg line. Over green beans and rice cakes, Christine and I agreed to disagree. I spoke first in the drafty, old building that had seen some of America's first literati speak. I said that I accepted the view that the HIV virus caused the AIDS diseases and talked about my work convincing youth to tell friends how to avoid HIV. Christine spoke about how my ideas teaching teens were counter-productive and launched into a full-frontal attack on medical authorities and institutions for the AIDS scam.

In a LA Times article of 2005, the paper reported, “Maggiore claimed to be in excellent health without taking anti-retroviral treatment. Maggiore's husband and partner, filmmaker Robin Scovill, has repeatedly tested negative despite what Maggiore describes as a decade of normal, latex-free relations." However, Christine had given birth to a child who tested positive and later died of AIDS-related causes. She had also admitted breast-feeding the baby.

To the very end, Christine Maggiore denied she was dying of AIDS caused by HIV. I liked Christine while respectfully disagreeing with her beliefs. I send my condolences to her husband and family.