Gaia Vaccine Foundation

In celebration of World AIDS Day, the Global Alliance to Immunize against AIDS (GAIA) Vaccine Foundation will honor the humanitarian work of seven noted HIV/AIDS advocates.

This year’s award recipients are:

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Just a few days ago, we participated in the official opening of the Hope Center Clinic. This long awaited event represents the culmination of much effort by the GAIA Mali team (Karamoko Tounkara in particular) and the ASACO (led by Mr. Guidé Diarra), who deserve our congratulations for the work accomplished. The clinic also represents action made tangible: since we believe that putting HIV medication at the reach of a patient’s hand, in their own village, and that the only way to put an end to AIDS is to do that everywhere that AIDS exists, world wide, we can say that we have put our thoughts and beliefs into action and we have accomplished our goal.

It was a glorious occasion. There were speeches, there were certificates provided to the women and men who helped found the clinic, and Sophie and I received Chiwaras (antelope sculptures), a sign of the highest recognition in Mali.

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On that Day, I will remember, I will not forget.

I will remember, and you will too, the sound of mothers crying over a lost child. I will remember, and you will too, the quiet look of desperation in the young girl who now knows that she is HIV-positive. You and I, we will not, we cannot forget the children left abandoned by the death of their parents. We cannot forget the children left in the care of the grandmothers. We can not forget the grandmothers who were the last ones standing. I will remember, and you will too, the lines of patients at the clinic, and our long talks with them, and the slow handfuls of pills that kept them alive, day by day, day by day. We will not forget, we will, we providers, all remember how few of our patients had medicine, how many could not get the test, or the x ray, or the pills.

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