Issues such as the war in Iraq and the economy are dominating the news during this election year. Meanwhile, pushing non-popular issues that seem to be falling off regular folks' radar are such humanitarians as Stephen Lewis of Canada.
Lewis, former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations and co-director of AIDS-Free World, will give a lecture on HIV/AIDS in Africa, presented by the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, on Saturday, Feb. 9, at 7 p.m. at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Sun Valley.
"The Center is committed to bringing in significant speakers to speak on topics that are crucial locally, nationally and globally," said Kristine Bretall, The Center's marketing director. "Lewis is one of the top leading voices on HIV/AIDS in Africa."
Formerly deputy executive director of UNICEF, Lewis was also a special envoy to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He is chairman of the board of the Stephen Lewis Foundation in Canada, which funds more than 140 grassroots initiatives in 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. He is a professor in global health at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Lewis is co-chair of the Leadership Programme Committee for the XVII International AIDS Conference, which will be held in Mexico City in August 2008. He also serves as a member of the board of directors of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.
In the United States, he is a senior advisor to the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York and co-director of AIDS-Free World, a new international AIDS advocacy organization that he founded with Paula Donovan, a 20-year veteran of international development, women's rights and HIV/AIDS.
"It is a new international non-governmental organization devoted to advocacy around AIDS," Lewis said. "We will continue to raise the issues that we raised over the course of my years as an envoy. "There will be no sacred cows, including the U.N."
The Stephen Lewis Foundation lists the following statistics of the global AIDS epidemic (statistics for sub-Saharan Africa are in brackets):
- People living with HIV in 2006: 39.5 million (24.7 million).
- Women living with HIV in 2006: 17.7 million (13.3 million).
- Children under 15 living with HIV in 2006: 2.3 million (2 million).
- New HIV infections in 2006 (adults and children): 4.3 million (2.8 million).
- Deaths from AIDS in 2006: 2.9 million (2.1 million).
- Approximately 65 million people have been infected with HIV. To date, AIDS has killed more than
25 million people worldwide, the majority of whom were unaware of their status.
- A child dies of an AIDS-related illness every minute of every day.
In some countries, AIDS has had a major impact on mortality rates, causing life expectancy to drop by more than 20 years. Children and women are disproportionately affected by the situation in Africa. Three women are infected for every two men, and the number of children who have been orphaned by AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to grow to 18 million by 2010.
"We're fighting hard for this new international agency for women, which is now before the (U.N.) General Assembly," Lewis said. "This can make a huge difference in women's lives, by preventing infections, looking at the intersection of disabilities and aids, and looking very hard at domestic violence, especially in areas of conflict like the Congo."
Making the issue heard above the noise related to the election is "always very difficult," Lewis said. "We're trying to focus on individual issues by talking in an unbridled and uncomplicated way with no holds barred, and fashion that in a way that is unmistakable. We want to get their attention and in the process shift government policy. I'll be discussing a number of those items at the speech in Ketchum."
Lewis said he has made it a point of going to smaller communities such as Ketchum when he can.
"They are not as 'pummeled,' he said. "There's a greater generosity of spirit. In the U.S. I'm considered on the progressive wing of the spectrum. Make no mistake, I'm a social democrat by definition. But in Canada I'm a moderate and considered very boring. But I don't intend to dilute my convictions."
There is some—if it can be considered so—positive news, however.
"There are upwards of 2 million people in treatment. That's a huge increase," Lewis said. "The sadness is there are 7 to 8 million people who require treatment. There is better access to the generic drugs, thanks to the Clinton Foundation, being provided at very lower costs. But 10 to 15 percent of people on the drugs develop a resistance, and then require the more expensive branded drugs. We need to deal with the prevention of spread from mother to children, and our response to orphans. The one area we haven't made significant improvement is with women. Gender inequality is so deeply rooted. That's the great challenge--to focus on women and see what can be done."
In 2006, Lewis' best-selling book, "Race Against Time," won the Canadian Booksellers Association's Libris Award for non-fiction book of the year.
Tickets for the lecture are $5 for Sun Valley Center for the Arts members and $10 for non-members. Call 726-9491, ext. 10,, visit sunvalleycenter.org or go to The Center in Ketchum. Tickets will also be sold at the door.
Stephen Lewis
