 Mary Fisher
first visited Zambia
a few years ago
because the
University of
Alabama in
Birmingham — home
base of her
Mary Fisher Clinical
AIDS Research and
Education (CARE)
Fund — supports
an ambitious
AIDS-fighting
program there:
the Centre for
Infectious Disease
Research in Zambia
(CIDRZ). Since
that first visit,
her heart has drawn
her back repeatedly
to the
south-central-African
nation, where
there's both
staggering loss from
HIV/AIDS and
heartening progress
against it. In
coming months, Ms.
Fisher will
spearhead a campaign
to upgrade CIDRZ's
Lusaka facilities
and expand its
life-giving
services.
Though one in six Zambians
is HIV-positive, CIDRZ has had tremendous
early success in the fight against the
disease. At a recent
UNAIDS event in a
packed Capitol Hill hearing room, Ms. Fisher
bore witness to CIDRZ's impact. “In a matter
of months, 30,000 previously untested
children and adults in Zambia have been
enrolled in care. They arrived, many of
them, curled in wheelbarrows. On the
outskirts of Lusaka, in Kalingalinga, I
witnessed this miracle: A man with AIDS,
who’d arrived skeletal and hopeless, within
weeks was triumphantly pushing his own
wheelbarrow back home… Those who kissed
death now embrace life." |
But as CIDRZ has
pursued miracles, it
also has outgrown
facilities. Its
operations currently
fill four converted
homes and apartments
scattered
inconveniently
around Lusaka. To
help CIDRZ keep
delivering and
expanding its
life-giving
services, Ms. Fisher
will chair a
campaign to build
and fund a single
CIDRZ base of
operations. The
ZAMBIA FIRST
campaign aims to
bring CIDRZ to scale
with the HIV/AIDS
epidemic — that is,
to make treatment
and research move as
fast as the virus
moves. Once
developed, the
knowledge and
methods could be
applied in Zambia,
then across Africa
and the world.
