From Texas to Swaziland

Sister Cities Share Experiences in Fight Against AIDS

Everyone in our community is aware of the impact that HIV/AIDS has had on our community. If you don’t know someone personally whose life has been affected by the disease, chances are that someone you know has a close friend or family member who has been impacted. HIV has cost the United States. Today, more than one million people are living with HIV in the United States, and more than 500,000 have died from HIV-related illness in the past twenty-five years. More than one hundred Americans will be infected with HIV every single day in 2006.

Despite these disturbing trends, we are among the most fortunate in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. Many African countries are being practically extinguished by the pandemic. Fort Worth recently entered into a Sister City partnership with Mbabane, Swaziland, and I had the rare opportunity to meet personally with an ambassador from the small African kingdom. Mayor Mike Moncrief asked if I would be willing to offer a tour to Bongani Dlamini, the Public Information Officer of the Municipal Council of Mbabane. In the process of informing Mr. Dlamini about our program and the many other services our community provides for people living with HIV/AIDS, I learned some stunning facts about his home country’s struggle with the disease.

The tiny kingdom of Swaziland is sandwiched between South Africa and Mozambique. A kingdom of about a million people, Swaziland has been devastated by HIV/AIDS more than any country in the world. Forty-three percent of the people are infected with the HIV virus. On average, fifty-five people die each day of AIDS in this tiny kingdom. Out of these, more than a half are members of the work force and are primary family providers. This has created a tremendous strain on the country’s economy, with rising unemployment, and an alarmingly high number of orphaned and vulnerable children. If current trends persist, the entire nation is threatened with total collapse.

Mr. Dlamini was nothing short of amazed by the services we offer and the medications afforded to our citizens. Such life saving support systems simply were beyond his comprehension. Instead of returning to his homeland distraught that such an opportunity was not available for his country, he went hope with hope that such a vision would one day become reality for them as well.

I recently received a note from Mr. Dlamini thanking me for the time we took to visit with him. He said that the experiences he had here in Fort Worth were very touching, and he believes that the relationship between his city and ours ultimately will help pave the way for the changes they require to survive as a nation. If you would like to learn more about the needs facing Swaziland as they combat the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS, please feel free to write Mr. Dlamini by email at bonganid@mbacity.org.sz. Even to know we hold him and his people in our thoughts and prayers is a positive step in the healing process.

As I consider the challenges facing the tine country of Swaziland, I have to pause in gratitude for the lives saved and the families restored here in America. Although the loss of life here is in the hundreds of thousands, we are so much farther along in our struggle to eliminate the virus from our midst entirely. Despite out progress in the past two decades, we have much work ahead of us. As we persist in our efforts, however, we lean on the hope of our past achievements, still knowing that we have far to go in order to end the suffering of the deadliest epidemic our world has faced in history.

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