Zambia Ex-President Seeks Funds to Fight AIDS Crisis in Africa

"You see HIV/AIDS here in America, you see it in Europe, but people are not dying in the millions as they are in Africa. Our main problem is poverty. Poverty must be fought," Zambian ex-president Kenneth Kaunda said last Wednesday in Cleveland. Speaking at a luncheon meeting of the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland, Kaunda said Zambia lacks the basics needed to fight AIDS. There are not enough doctors or hospitals; most people cannot afford AIDS drugs; and education is inadequate, he said.

Kaunda played a leading role in his nation's efforts to gain independence from Great Britain in the 1960s before becoming president of Zambia. But after his son died of AIDS in 1986, Kaunda began talking about the disease at a time when other African leaders downplayed it or refused to recognize it. Since leaving office in 1991, he has devoted much of his time to the Kenneth Kaunda Children of Africa Foundation, which helps care for AIDS orphans and sponsors radio broadcasts about AIDS. The messages are delivered by Kaunda's son Waza, a physician who operates a medical clinic in Lusaka, Zambia.

Kaunda was in Cleveland to drum up support for the Children of Africa Project, whose goal is to link African-Americans with Africans to try and break the cycle of poverty and educate youths on both continents about HIV/AIDS. Project organizers are trying to persuade local churches to establish Children of Africa Clubs. Millions of African children are "at the bottom of a well" waiting for the world to rescue them, said Earl Pike, executive director of the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland.

But Kaunda trod delicately over some issues in the fight against AIDS. African culture doesn't promote condom use, and Kaunda said he isn't "sure that we should be insisting on condoms as the answer to the problem."

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