"A
few days into the new year of 2004, I was walking down a hospital corridor
toward the room of a friend who was dying, when I had a flashback. Just for
a moment, it felt like it was 1995 and I was in a hospital in upstate New
York, approaching the room of another friend who was also dying. Of course
it wasn't 1995. I wasn't in New York, and I wasn't visiting my gay white friend
who was dying of AIDS. It was a new year in a new century. I was in Cape Town,
South Africa, and this time the friend dying of AIDS was a black mother of
three children.
"Two
friends: a wealthy, white, gay man in America and a poor, black mother in
South Africa. The only thing they had in common was that they died of AIDS.
Yet, when I think of Nombulelo, John creeps into my memory. And when I think
of HIV/AIDS in South Africa today, I’m transported back to the start
of the AIDS epidemic in the U.S. in the 1980s. I keep asking the question:
don't we have a responsibility to help people living with HIV/AIDS wherever
in the world they live?"
~
Kevin Winge
As
2006 marks the 25th anniversary of the AIDS pandemic, Never
Give Up: Vignettes from Sub-Saharan Africa in the Age of AIDS (Syren
Book Company) is a timely new book that raises questions about international
health issues, cross-cultural experiences, racism, and homophobia. This intimate
collection of true stories about the AIDS pandemic is told from the vantage
point first of a young man beginning life in New York City in the 1980s to
his work today as a mid-career professional on the frontlines of the pandemic
in both the Twin Cities and sub-Saharan Africa.
Author Kevin
Winge shares his firsthand knowledge of the realities and
challenges faced by people living with this devastating disease. While earning
his master's degree from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government,
Kevin traveled to the townships outside of Cape Town, South Africa, where
he lived and worked with people living with HIV/AIDS. The book chronicles
his work through accounts of the people he came in contact with and the
experiences he encountered.
Kevin Winge was named
2006 Person of the Year by
Lavender Magazine.
Open Arms of Minnesota |
1414 East Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55404 |
612-872-1152 | ©2006 Kevin Winge
