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On the Front Line of AIDS Battle
Aired July 10, 2003 - 15:21 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Beyond the debates over strategy and funding for battling AIDS in Africa are the people living and dying with the disease every day.
CNN's Charlayne Hunter-Gault has one woman's story of coping with AIDS and comforting those most in need.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The front line in the war against AIDS.
One of the front-line generals: Rose Thamae.
ROSE THAMAE, LET US GROW: The person is HIV-positive. That's all I can say.
HUNTER-GAULT: But trying in vain to persuade an ambulance to come to this poor black township to take victims in their final hours to a place of comfort, a place where fallen comrades like 27-year-old Machudiso Koquani (ph) won't have to die in their own filth. A volunteer steps in here, but many die waiting.
At 50, Rose Thamae is battle-hardened, raped at nine and again at 19 and again at 32, when she was infected with the AIDS virus.
THAMAE: It was not even men. It was these little boys.
HUNTER-GAULT: Thamae uses her psychological scars to help others, teaching HIV-positive women skills that will bring in a little income, helping a woman trying to place the child of her late sister, an AIDS victim, scraping together food to feed her small staff of 25, mostly volunteers who receive some donor support, but who often, like the neighbors they serve, do without.
For homebound AIDS victims, Thamae sends her lieutenants to counsel and console, especially when the only medicine available treats just the symptoms, like colds and flu. Although this HIV- positive general in the war on AIDS sees the reflection of her own future at each funeral, she promises each fallen comrade she'll continue the charge to persuade the government to provide life- prolonging, anti-retroviral treatment now inaccessible to the poor.
THAMAE: We'll fight for the treatment, until our people get the treatment.
HUNTER-GAULT: Bulldozers pausing only for last rites and final goodbyes.
THAMAE: ... are really running out, because, every day, this is what I'm seeing. And it's like I'm losing the battle.
HUNTER-GAULT (on camera): There are thousands, if not millions, of Rose Thamae all over Africa who wonder when, if ever, will the funds from the AIDS war chest filter down to their front lines.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault, CNN, Orange Farm, South Africa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 10, 2003 - 15:21 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Beyond the debates over strategy and funding for battling AIDS in Africa are the people living and dying with the disease every day.
CNN's Charlayne Hunter-Gault has one woman's story of coping with AIDS and comforting those most in need.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The front line in the war against AIDS.
One of the front-line generals: Rose Thamae.
ROSE THAMAE, LET US GROW: The person is HIV-positive. That's all I can say.
HUNTER-GAULT: But trying in vain to persuade an ambulance to come to this poor black township to take victims in their final hours to a place of comfort, a place where fallen comrades like 27-year-old Machudiso Koquani (ph) won't have to die in their own filth. A volunteer steps in here, but many die waiting.
At 50, Rose Thamae is battle-hardened, raped at nine and again at 19 and again at 32, when she was infected with the AIDS virus.
THAMAE: It was not even men. It was these little boys.
HUNTER-GAULT: Thamae uses her psychological scars to help others, teaching HIV-positive women skills that will bring in a little income, helping a woman trying to place the child of her late sister, an AIDS victim, scraping together food to feed her small staff of 25, mostly volunteers who receive some donor support, but who often, like the neighbors they serve, do without.
For homebound AIDS victims, Thamae sends her lieutenants to counsel and console, especially when the only medicine available treats just the symptoms, like colds and flu. Although this HIV- positive general in the war on AIDS sees the reflection of her own future at each funeral, she promises each fallen comrade she'll continue the charge to persuade the government to provide life- prolonging, anti-retroviral treatment now inaccessible to the poor.
THAMAE: We'll fight for the treatment, until our people get the treatment.
HUNTER-GAULT: Bulldozers pausing only for last rites and final goodbyes.
THAMAE: ... are really running out, because, every day, this is what I'm seeing. And it's like I'm losing the battle.
HUNTER-GAULT (on camera): There are thousands, if not millions, of Rose Thamae all over Africa who wonder when, if ever, will the funds from the AIDS war chest filter down to their front lines.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault, CNN, Orange Farm, South Africa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
