Article: Secretary of State Powell Visits Soweto

25 May 2001

Article: Secretary of State Powell Visits Soweto

Meets with AIDS victims and black entrepreneurs

By Charles W. Corey
Washington File Staff Correspondent

Soweto, South Africa -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell spent much of his full day in South Africa March 25 in Soweto -- the black community that played such an important role in the fight to end apartheid -- visiting an HIV/AIDS clinic and two black economic empowerment sites.

Secretary Powell and his delegation first stopped at the Jabavu HIV/AIDS clinic, known as Hope Village -- a visit that the secretary said "deeply moved" him.

Upon arrival, Powell and his wife Alma and the U.S. delegation were warmly greeted by singing women outside the clinic. Secretary Powell swayed in rhythm with the musical tribute.

The secretary then went inside the clinic for a short ceremony in which he heard first-hand about how the HIV/AIDS pandemic is affecting the lives of the people of Soweto, South Africans, and Africans across the continent.

Prudence, 29, told Powell that she has been HIV-positive for 10 years. She talked about what she said was the isolation, stigma, and rejection that she feels as an HIV/AIDS sufferer. But she expressed hope that Powell will return to Washington with a message about the devastating impact the deadly virus is having upon the people of Soweto.

"You are an African. As an African, you will see to it that African issues are taken into consideration," she told Powell.

Another woman stood up, Mpumi, who is the mother of a 12-year-old son and an eight-year-old daughter and has been HIV-positive since 1992. As a mother, she told the secretary her greatest concern is for the welfare of her children after her death. "When I die, who will take care of my kids? I am looking for someone who will."

A third woman named Florence stood up. She told the secretary she had lost her child to HIV/AIDS.

"I see you as a role model," she told the secretary. " I see you as a role model to the man in Africa. I know in coming here, you brought the light" of hope that can be used in the battle against the deadly virus.

She also told the secretary that HIV is often blamed on women. "My partner and parents blamed it on me," she said, adding, "I did not deserve to go to the funeral of my child."

Following the ceremony, Powell told those at the clinic that he was "deeply impressed in the way in which the communities within Soweto are being organized and brought together to understand that this is a problem that the community has to, in the first instance, deal with through education, through teaching a new generation of youngsters how to protect themselves, how to defend themselves against this disease."

He also called on everyone to show compassion to those stricken with the disease.

HIV/AIDS, he reminded his audience, "is a health care problem but is also a problem of poverty ... the environment, family culture, and a problem that requires engagement from the government and non-profit organizations, from voluntary organizations -- the entire community coming together.

An estimated 20 percent of South Africans, or 4.2 million adults and children, are living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Every day an estimated 1,700 people acquire a new HIV infection. More than 420,000 South African children have been orphaned by AIDS.

Following the clinic visit, Powell went to the Soweto Digital Village. For more than four years, that facility has been providing technological access and much needed training in computers to the people of Soweto.

The facility was developed under the auspices of Microsoft and Africare and became a reality in 1997 when Microsoft head Bill Gates dedicated the facility.

The Digital Village seeks to bring technology closer, empower the community, and build technology skills that can lead to employment and business skills.

After visiting with the center staff and sitting at the computers with some of the users, Powell, who is a self-confessed "Internet Addict," had lunch provided by Caroline Marite, a 47-year-old entrepreneur caterer, who started her business with seed capital from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Secretary Powell then finished his visit to Soweto with a trip to a large, state-of-the-art BP petrol station owned by a black entrepreneur, who was also given his start in business through seed capital provided through a program developed by USAID.

Before traveling to Soweto, Secretary Powell began his day in South Africa with a meeting with South African Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and went from Soweto to the University of Witwatersrand, where he delivered a major speech.

Secretary Powell travels on to Kenya and Uganda before leaving Africa for meetings in Europe, en route home. The secretary began his May 22-28 Africa trip in Mali.