We visited hospitals, clinics, orphanages and home-based community care groups and had several discussion groups with (mostly) women who face the crisis every day with dignity and love for those infected and affected by it.

This is a wide shot of the Orangefarm township.

South Africa is the wealthiest and most "Westernized" country in Africa, but despite what you may have learned, and although it is no longer government-sponsored, the concept of apartheid is alive and well, nine years after the country's first free election.  Most of the rich people are white and most of the poor people are black and still live in the townships (similar to Indian reservations) they were forced to move to during apartheid.  The African National Congress (Nelson Mandela's party) is in power, and Thabo Mbeki is the president.  The government, although a predominantly black-led government, has been slow to address issues of poverty and HIV/AIDS, for many reasons.  I don't pretend to be an expert, and reasons vary depending on who you ask, but I will try to explain a little bit in this report some of the reasons for this.

South Africa has the largest number of HIV infected people (or people with full-blown AIDS) of any country in the world - 5 million, or about 20% of the population (it is less than 1% in the U.S. as a whole).  Some areas of the country have higher or lower rates of infection, and in the Kwa-Zulu Natal township outside Johannesburg, it is estimated that over 50% of the women age 15-34 are HIV+.  These are only government statistics of known cases, and the rates are probably higher because many people don't get tested because they can't afford treatment, so they feel why bother?  The cost of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) that have been successful in dramatically improving the health of HIV+ people, is roughly $300 per year (and that was after pharmaceutical companies reduced the prices), but 11.5% of the population lives on less than $1 per DAY, and can barely afford food and clean water, so treatment is out of the question.  The life expectancy is only 47.1 years, but in 1997 it was 54.7 years, so it has actually decreased by 7.6 years, mostly due to AIDS!

The total external debt of South Africa is $23.4 billion and it is owed to the U.S., the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), the rest of the G7 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK), and private creditors like Citibank.  The government paid $4.6 billion in debt service last year, which is 3.7% of the GDP, but spent only 3.3% of GDP on healthcare for all citizens.  In many "Third World" countries, this gap is even greater, and many governments spend 2-3 times on debt what they spend on healthcare and education COMBINED.  About 1/3 of children in South Africa are malnourished, the infant mortality rate is 8 times what it is in the U.S. (56 per 1000 in SA, compared to 7 per 1000 in the U.S.) and the per capita GDP is $8908 (in the U.S., it is about $27,000).  There are also more homeless and unemployed persons living in South Africa now than there were under apartheid.

Jubilee South Africa is starting an audit of all loans to the government to show that much of the debt is illegitimate (acquired through undemocratic methods, or forced on the government by creditors for political purposes) and/or odious (used by government officials for personal use or to oppress the citizens of the country).  Early estimates are that about $18 billion of the current debt stock (the $23.4 billion) was acquired during the apartheid regime, who used it to oppress the majority of citizens of the country. Now we are forcing the same people who were oppressed to pay back that debt.

Is that fair?  The Jubilee campaign certainly doesn't think so and that's why we, along with Jubilee South Africa, are working to pressure the creditors to cancel that debt using their own resources (so it won't use our tax dollars), which all except some of the private banks can afford to do. South Africa currently doesn't even qualify for debt relief because the country is too "wealthy" according to IMF rules for debt relief.

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We went to about 15 different places, but I'm including a few stories from the most memorable places and people.
We visited the Kwase-Kwaza community home-based care center in Natalspruit, one of Johannesburg poorest townships.  Kwase-Kwaza means "the dawn has come" and the mission of the organization is to help those in the township living with HIV and AIDS to see a new, healthy day.  Their office is about the size of most Americans' living rooms and serves as headquarters for the women who run the program.  These women, along with about 20 volunteers who take care of 170 clients (almost all of whom live with HIV and AIDS) and
the many orphans who live in child-headed households.  Most of the women have no income, yet they know it is their mission to help the people of their community and they greeted us with songs of welcome and hope.  They said they needed funding for food and medication for the people they serve, but also for basic office equipment so they can connect with people around the world and educate them about what is going on in their township and in South Africa.

This is me with Caroline, a 32-year-old HIV positive woman I met at Kwase-Kwaza. She is a single mom to a "very smart" 10-year-old daughter and is unemployed. She relies on Kwase-Kwaza for food and other necessities.

I met Caroline, a 32-year-old woman who is HIV-positive and a single parent of a 10-year-old daughter, also named Caroline, who is "very smart" and in the 5th grade. She is unemployed and relies on Kwase-Kwaza's volunteers for food and other assistance.  She is currently does not have access to anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) that can dramatically improve the lives of many HIV-positive persons.  She walked almost two miles to reach the Kwase-Kwaza office to meet the visitors from America.  She is quite energetic, but I could see the exhaustion in her eyes.  I didn't really know how to talk to her about her HIV status, because it seems so inappropriate, as though I was hoping she was positive so I could tell everyone at home that I met someone who is sick.  I asked her if she had developed full-blown AIDS and she looked at me shocked and said no, but I couldn't tell if she was shocked because there is such a stigma regarding those who have the disease, or that she was (understandably) terrified about getting it because she didn't have access to treatment, and didn't even want to think about it.

Many people don't even called HIV or AIDS by those names, because of the stigma.  They call it "the sickness" or something else and many people are shunned by their family and friends or are thrown out of their homes because they are sick.  The lack of education is astonishing but there are a lot of people to educate.  We did go to some awesome clinics, particularly the one at Baragwanath Hospital, which is one of the largest hospitals in the Southern Hemisphere.  The clinic receives no government funding (but the hospital does), only private funding, but it is so colorful and inviting and everything you would want an HIV/AIDS clinic to be.  They provide testing, counseling and low-cost formula for mothers to reduce transmission through breast milk, and "e-pap," a nutritional supplement.  They are also starting preventative HIV vaccine trials this summer.

The clinic had very graphic murals and posters about HIV/AIDS (with condoms - oh my goodness!) and they are so much more progressive and open about the disease than we are in the U.S., because they have to be.  They even had them at St. Mary's church where we were invited to attend a service (and we got to introduce ourselves to the congregation!).  I kept thinking we would NEVER have these kinds of images and messages in doctors offices or clinics in the U.S., and certainly not in church, because someone is bound to be offended.

We also went to the Ezibeleni ("place of peace") School for Physically Disabled children.  Someone had the brilliant idea to bring Polaroid cameras and take pictures of kids and give the pictures to them on the spot.  The kids were absolutely thrilled to have a photo of themselves, and many of them planned to send them to their families.  They would watch as the pictures developed and get so excited when they recognized their images and they treasured the pictures so much.  It showed me how much we take for granted; I have a bunch of pictures of myself and I don't really like any of them, but they were so happy to have just one picture.

We went to the Mother Teresa home, where nuns, who were students of Mother Teresa, take care of adults and children, most of whom have HIV or AIDS or whose parents have died or just can't take care of them.  The nuns and women who helped them were so peaceful and loving and they deal with it every day, but continue to do it because they feel that they are doing God's work.  I don't know that I would have the strength to do that.

Part of our group got to meet two especially incredible women: Cora and Winnie.  They live in different townships but serve as matriarchs to the people in their communities.  Cora lives in one of the worst areas and I didn't get the chance to meet her but those in our group who did were so impressed that I wanted to share her story.  She cares for all living creatures, including animals, of which she has about 20 that she looks after.  She also goes around the township and takes care of people living with HIV/AIDS the best she can.  Winnie is known as "Mama AIDS" in her community and also takes care of everyone who needs help.  She has a soup kitchen IN HER BACKYARD and every morning people line up for food. She always has enough for at least a bowl of food for everyone and never turns anyone away. What is most amazing is that they have just about nothing, but they feel they have no choice but to take care of people.  All the caretakers we met walk many miles every day to reach as many people as they can.

We went to Orangefarm, a "middle class" township.  I say middle class because they were poor but not the poorest.  There are a lot of pictures of Orangefarm in my online album, but one reason why we visited them is to see a water privatization project that had made life difficult for residents of the township. As is common in many developing countries, the government gets revenue to pay off their debts by allowing large corporations to come into the country and do just about whatever they want, like destroy the environment and lower labor standards (like sweatshops).  Often, governments are forced to allow the companies to do business in their countries in compliance with loan agreements with the World Bank or structural adjustment programs (SAPs) to get debt relief from the IMF.

This is a water meter in Orangefarm, part of the Suez company's water privatization project. All the residents have these meters, and the water comes out of a faucet on the side of their house.

So, the South African government allowed a French company called Suez to privatize the water supply in Orangefarm.  That means that the only clean water residents can get is through Suez's water supply and they have to prepay for water.  They pay a certain amount, but they don't know how much water they will get - they may get 50 gallons or 100 gallons, and the amount of water could change even if you pay the same amount each time. Sometimes Suez turns off the entire supply, and doesn't tell the residents how long the water will be shut off, so it could be a week or a month or more. The residents have organized to lobby their governments, but so far the government and the company have chosen to put "profits over people."

The water isn't even piped into their houses, but instead comes out of a faucet on the side of their houses.  If they can't afford water, they have to go to a nearby river, which is very polluted and there is a large cholera problem in the township.  I'm not sure that they have a way to boil the water, and it's probably so polluted that even if they did boil it, the amount of waste in the water is too much.  I used to work at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire and, from what I learned there about how the poor lived during medieval times, with no sanitation, it seemed that these people are forced to live 400 years in the past.  How can we let this happen?

The people of Orangefarm can bypass this water system by building a well, which costs about $1000.  There is an organization in the U.S., called the African Well Fund, that raises money for wells.  If you'd like more information about it, please let me know.

People in South Africa are very politicized and aware of U.S. foreign policy, because it directly affects them.  It's shocking how much they know about us and how little we know about their country.  Everyone loved us, but we heard several times that people do NOT like President Bush and were very against the war in Iraq.  I brought home a newspaper from there, and all the letters to the editor are about the U.S. and the war, which was still going on at the time.

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For our last day there, a small group of us got a "combie" (a minivan-sized taxi) and went to the Apartheid museum to learn about the history of South Africa. It was the perfect ending to our trip and a MUST STOP if you ever go to South Africa.  The museum was set up so well and when you pay your admission, you get a ticket that says "White" or "Non-white" and there are two different entrances depending on your "ethnicity."  I got a non-white ticket, and our entrance wasn't as nice as the white entrance, which shows the separation of races during apartheid.

The museum had videos (including a shocking apartheid propaganda film about how blacks benefit from being enslaved) and many displays, including a really cool one of all the protest posters made during the anti-apartheid movement. Much of the museum and what happened during apartheid was understandably shocking, but there was a caption on a photo that best summed up the situation.  It's a common saying among black South Africans about when the Europeans settled there: "When the Europeans came, they had the Bible and we had the land. Now we have the Bible and they have our land."

My favorite part of the museum was actually at the exit.  They have a glass-enclosed showcase with the previous day's newspapers with government-related articles highlighted.The papers are changed every day and are there to show that, in many ways, even though apartheid is no longer government-sanctioned, there are many struggles to overcome and shows that the entire history of the country brought us to the present moment.

One of the first days of the trip, we met with Mark Heywood, an activist with the Treatment Access Campaign.  He spoke to us about the current situation and why the government is reluctant to even acknowledge that there is an AIDS pandemic, let alone provide universal treatment for the people. He said that it was very hard for many of the activists to protest the African National Congress (ANC) controlled government because many of them were active in the anti-apartheid movement and fought to put this party in power. However, because there was so much oppression of blacks during apartheid, those in the ANC tend to believe that HIV is part of a white conspiracy and was actually developed by whites to kill all the blacks, and that the spread of HIV to western countries is just an unfortunate side effect of this campaign.  They feel that acknowledging HIV is like acknowledging this racist conspiracy, and so they promote good nutrition over medical treatment and prevention education.  And, horribly, they might not be too far from the truth. We learned at the museum that during the apartheid regime in the 2nd half of the last century, the government supported a program called Project Coast, which was a chemical and biological weapons program and the government used these weapons on blacks in the townships (probably one of the reasons they moved them together in several different locations).  It's not hard to imagine that HIV was one of these weapons.  The husband of one of the women in our group, Cynthia, works on the AIDS vaccine at the National Institutes of Health, and told her that as recently as four months ago, the South African government was trying to sell the formulas and patents (as intellectual property) of these weapons to the U.S. government for military use, but he wasn't sure if our government purchased them.

It would take a whole other report just to tell about everything we saw at the museum, because it as educational as every other part of the trip.

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To be honest, I didn't have to go to Africa to know there is an economic, social and health crisis. Naturally, there was a shock of having poverty right in your face and needing to take time to process all of it.  The most shocking part of it is how big the gap is between rich and poor. We have homeless in the U.S., and of course we should do everything we can to help them, but there are just SO MANY homeless and unemployed people there.

I'm glad we stayed in Sandton, the rich neighborhood of Johannesburg, because it's such a huge, diverse city and we only had to travel about 45 minutes to see some of the worst living conditions in the world. It also changed my vocabulary when talking about people in "developing" countries.  We used words like developing and "vulnerable" and "at risk," but after meeting the people we met, I think we really need to think about what we're saying.  I think the U.S. is "developing" in terms of how we relate with other countries and even treat our own citizens.  "Vulnerable" and "at risk" suggest that they are less than we are. Even the phrase used in the Bible when Jesus talks about helping the poor - "that which you do to THE LEAST OF THESE," seems particularly derogatory, like I'm more human because I have money or good health. Even a word like poverty is subjective - do you mean spiritually impoverished or materially impoverished?  And just because we're rich, does that make us right?

My roommate, Rana (pronounce Renna, the best roommate ever!) is of Syrian heritage, and she really opened my eyes to some of the underlying issues of the trip, because she had experienced them.  Some of the women in our group seemed to be concerned that we must "empower" the women and "save them" from their situation.  Someone actually said, "Today you're going to be lucky enough to see some really sick people."  Is that a good thing?  Should we be disappointed to see healthy people? Rana called it the "racism of compassion," because when you say that you want to save someone, you're basically saying that they are broken and you are better than they are and are you are there to fix them. The people we met can save themselves, of that I am absolutely sure, they just need a little help from us.  It changed how I viewed our role in all of this - it's not our job to convert people to our ways, nor do we necessarily need to go there to teach them the "right" way to do things. We can travel to other countries to learn about the culture, but change must happen ON THEIR TERMS and IF THEY WANT IT.

I learned how much we have that we DON'T NEED and how much we have to offer to others.When I was raising money for the trip (and if you were able to donate to me, THANKS AGAIN!), people would tell me that they didn't have any money to give.  Some I know genuinely didn't, but others I asked could have given something, even if they had to go without their $3 morning coffee for a week (gasp!).  I don't want to judge or sound holier-than-thou, I would just encourage all of us to look at what we have and what we can give others, even if it's donating clothing to Goodwill.  I also don't think we should renounce all our worldly possessions and be "poor," but I think we should work towards EQUALITY.  People who are materially poor are not necessarily so because they didn't work hard, but more likely don't have the opportunities most of us have.  Winnie and Cora could run a corporation, and better than the guys at Enron, I promise, but they have more urgent responsibilities.

The trip also reaffirmed a belief that I have that everyone and everything in the world is interrelated.  When we buy clothing and Walmart that was made in a sweatshop, we are encouraging the company that makes the clothes to continue that practice.  But, some of us work for such low wages, because the company we work for is more keen on making a huge profit, so we can only afford the cheap sweatshop clothes.  What we do DOES affect others and issues like debt and AIDS DO affect us, maybe not immediately, but eventually.  Secretary of State Colin Powell said, "The war on terror is inextricably linked with the war on poverty."  The U.S. has seen and felt terrorism, and to fight it we need to fight poverty first.

Another belief that was affirmed for me was the need to protect indigenous peoples' rights. Most of the people we met were wearing clothes you could find in the U.S., and in the pictures you'll see traditional dance and costumes, but they have to work harder to keep their heritage alive. Like Indian reservations in the U.S., the exploitation and unfair treatment of native people is a huge messy issue and it makes me sad to think how much culture has been lost for the benefit of Western ideals and capitalism.

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I work part-time for a news/talk radio station in York, WSBA 910 AM. The staff was so supportive of me and some donated money for the trip. Jim Horn, the Program Director, lent me his tape recorder, so I was able to record two choirs singing for us and an interview with Lynn McMullen, who created the trip. I did a phone interview from the hotel in Johannesburg with Dennis Edwards, one of the Morning Show hosts, which included a few snippets of songs and the interview with Lynn, and the interview was over 20 minutes long so Dennis decided to cut it up and air it over three days on the show!  It aired May 1st, 2nd and 5th and I have a copy of it (including all the songs), so if you'd like a copy, let me know. I just ask that you send me a blank tape and return postage.

Also, the York Daily Record, my morning paper, will be doing a feature article about me and the trip in July, and will include some journal entries and photos. The paper has an online edition, and I'll let you know when it comes out, but I'll also be buying about 50 copies of the paper, so if you'd like a copy, just ask! I'm hoping the article will lead to other opportunities, like funding to work for Jubilee full-time and/or job offers.

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All change in the world happens when people start talking to one another. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the issues and how incredibly difficult it will be to improve the current situation, because you're basically changing how people view themselves and others and the world.  It's changing the root of why relationships between people are so screwed up and, when you change that, you change everything.  But I love the challenge and I see now that it's actually really EASY to do. It's the basic belief that my life is just as valuable as yours and I have as much right to live freely and be happy as you do, and to extend that belief to everyone in the world. It's huge, it's everything, and sure it's idealistic, but it IS possible.

If anyone is interested in information about the organizations we visited and how to donate to them, any other aspects of the trip, the Jubilee/Drop the Debt movement, the global AIDS pandemic, the Apartheid Museum, or even learn a few common expressions in Zulu or Sotho (I know a few now), or if you want me to come and speak to your group about the trip, please let me know!  I'm happy to talk to anyone, anytime, about it, and if I can't help you, I can at least point you in the right direction. Email me.

I hope this report has inspired you to get involved with any cause or organization that moves you.  The easiest and one of the most effective things you can do it write to your members of Congress and the President and tell them to support an issue that's important to you. And VOTE to let them know that if they don't support you, you will make sure they lose their jobs. You can find out your members' and the President's contact information at http://www.house.gov, http://www.senate.gov and http://www.whitehouse.gov. You pay their salaries and have every right to know what they're doing in your name.  Find out where your tax dollars are going. Since I think people should feel free to live their lives as they choose, as long as they don't hurt anyone else, you don't HAVE to get involved, and I won't be offended if you delete this and just go on with your life. But I believe we are all brought into other peoples' live for a reason, and I hope I can be of service to help you help others.  Thank you so much for reading and for all the support you've given me and all the amazing people we met on the trip!  There is much more to be done, but a better world is possible and together we can make it so!

the goal is Elevation,
Abbey Fisher
Jubilee York, PA, USA

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