Mr. MICA. I am pleased to recognize the last member of the panel, who talks from very firsthand experience about this terrible disease, Chatinka Nkhoma. She is a Malawi citizen.

Welcome, and you are recognized, ma'am.

STATEMENT OF CHATINKA C. NKHOMA, MALAWI CITIZEN

Ms. NKHOMA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, ladies and gentlemen, I am here today to represent the millions of people that you have just heard of that are being infected with HIV/AIDS and have no way out; millions of Africans who are dying and will continue to die if nothing is done immediately.

I am their voice here to cry for help. We need access to the proper treatment of AIDS. I am a 37-year-old African woman, a single woman living with AIDS. I come from Malawi, a very poor country in Africa, actually the second poorest country in the whole world, although I think last week they say we are No. 4, but I still think we are the poorest.

Malawi has an estimated population of 11 million. Twenty percent, as we heard, is infected with the AIDS virus and is dying from it. I now call myself living with AIDS, but just a couple of months ago I was dying of AIDS. I do not think anybody in this House can even begin to imagine what it is like to live in an environment like that.

These figures, the 20 percent, also include, Mr. Chairman, my brother Michael and his wife, who died last year, leaving a 2month-old baby who had to be fed by a wet nurse; my sister, who died in 1994. She was a widow. She left four children. I have lost three brothers-in-law. I have lost 10 cousins. My mother, who right now she should be enjoying the fruits of her labor, is burying her children.

I have lost so many friends and neighbors and work colleagues; so many relations. Many professional people, entertainers, and local media people, even politicians; everybody is dying. We are either dying from the disease or the effects of it.

Saving the children and not the mothers is even worse, because children are left vulnerable to abuse. I am supposed to have been dead right now, but I can testify that I am here because of the mercy of Christ. I am not here because I was treated for opportunistic diseases. I had a lot of antibiotics and many other stuff that tried to cure the infections that I had. But, Mr. Chairman, if I had not been one of the fortunate people, one of the people who had God's blessing to be able to access these drugs, I simply would not have been here.

Mr. Chairman, we need these drugs to enable us to survive this catastrophe. We need these drugs. We need the full and complete AIDS treatment for the millions of people dying. That need cannot be adequately emphasized in any way. A program that can test and treat millions of us who are infected will also stop the virus from spreading further. Right now that is the only available vaccine.

As we heard early on, Mr. Chairman, you say there has been a significant reduction in the AIDS infection rate in America. That started by the drugs. There have been so many statistics that have been thrown around today Mr. Chairman. Whatever the source

they came from, and whoever presented them, they are alarming, and this trend will not change.

There are many arguments about what other things we do not have. That is true, we do not have many things, but we cannot be condemned to death because we are poor. There are some people that have actually said we Africans are used to death and destruction. We are not; we are only human people living in fear every day, every minute. We do not talk about AIDS because it provokes that fear.

Some people react violently. We have heard about people being killed. That is the only means of self-defense some people find. It is unacceptable to discriminate against anybody, but who are we to judge? If you cannot get to something, you cannot see and touch, then people just use all sorts of ways to self-defend themselves. Maybe by killing your neighbor you think you are going to save yourself.

I know today there will probably be a lot more arguments as to why we should not get the drugs; arguments that they are too costly and they are too dangerous to give to Africans; that it is better for us to die because we do not have high-tech hospitals; that we are not intelligent enough to administer them properly, that we do not need them now. I do not know when we will need them; that we only need aspirins and antibiotics now; that we are going to create a virus that will be resistant to all the newer drugs and probably have wasted scientists' time in their research.

Mr. Chairman, we want to be alive to bring up our children. Whatever it takes to make us live, it must be done. We are also human. I know we are very poor humans, but not by choice. We do not want to die. At this stage in medical advances, it should not be accepted for anybody to be left to die because of the cost factors. At the end of my studies here, I want to go back home. I want to return to my family. I can only do this if we have access to drugs in my country, because I do not want to die. At the same time, I want to go home and be with my family, so I am begging you to at least give us access to these drugs, whatever way. The pledges that have been made, $100 million, or everything else, but not drugs, this is not right. We should have-the pledges should include everything. If I do not have clothes on my shoulders, you cannot say you are not going to give me food. That is the only way it is going to make a difference.

I know it is not easy to keep up with the treatment regimens. Regardless of where you come from or how rich you are, they are hard. But I know one thing for sure: Where this is a will, there is a way. Africans have contributed to AIDS research. As we speak now, we have institutions that are researching AIDS in Africa, and most of the drugs that have been used now have been researched on people in Africa. We have been used as guinea pigs in trials for these drugs. I think we deserve the drugs, if not for anything else, maybe just because we are humans. We should not be expendable. We should not be punished for being poor.

More prevention, education, and better hospitals will not save the situation. We need that and the drugs. I believe I was able to learn foreign languages, several of them, I have learned foreign technologies, and I believe it would not be true if you say that we

cannot learn how to follow medical procedures that will save our own lives. We can learn how to do that, and by shear will we will make it. I know people who will and do travel 10 miles every day to get an injection if the doctor tells them to do that, by foot.

These days we are no longer mourning our dead, Mr. Chairman, we are just burying them. We do not have the time, the resources, or the tears. The old are burying the young. This is not a good thing for Africans, for we believe that young people do not make good ancestors. They have not gathered enough wisdom and experience for this job of being an ancestor.

Following proper burial customs ensures that the dead lay at rest and do not return to haunt us and bring bad omens upon the community, which is exactly what is happening.

Mr. Chairman, in closing, I just want to say, we have three types of brothers and sisters, Mr. Chairman, in my country. We have the breast brothers and sisters, those that you share the same breast. We have blood line brothers and sisters. Then we have brothers who are people who have been there for us. I am sure you can be our brothers and sisters. You have been there for us for many times, and we need your help this time.

Mr. Chairman, we don't want to die. At the same time, we have what we also called Wantu. I believe in Yiddish, we call it mensch, and in English it is probably humanity. It talks about humanness, gentleness, and hospitality, putting yourself out on behalf of others, being vulnerable. It recognizes that my humanity is bound in yours. We can only be humans together. Bishop Desmond Tutu is better than anyone at doing this.

Mr. Chairman, AIDS is affecting everything, every aspect of our lives. It is leaving no stone unturned. It is cultural, socioeconomic, a productivity degradation. Mr. Chairman, unless it is in one's interest to see us Africans perish, immediate action needs to be taken. Give us this gift of life!

The Greeks said that the last demon that came out of Pandora's box, called hope, was the most dangerous demon, because it looked like an angel. Giving us anything else other than the complete treatment is giving us this demon. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen.

Mr. MICA. Thank you for your testimony.

[The prepared statement of Ms. Nkhoma follows:]

WRITTEN STATEMENT ON THE

CONGRESSIONAL HEARING ON HIV/AIDS IN AFRICA

JULY 22, 1999

By Chatinkha C. Nkhoma, (37 year old HIV+ single mother from Malawi, Africa)

The first time I came to America was in 1991after completing a one and half year study of the German language in Bonn, Germany. I came here to chase the Malawian woman's dream combined with the American dream. That is to get a higher education and gain financial independence and security. I proceeded to enroll at Montgomery College, paying for my tuition doing odd manual jobs. I completed the first semester as an A student. I applied and received a scholarship from my government, which enabled me to enter four-year college at George Washington University in the Fall of 1992. After my graduation with a BA in International Affairs from the George Washington University in 1995, I headed straight back to Malawi, Africa with overflowing enthusiasm and full of anticipation of the good times to come. I was assigned to the Foreign Affairs ministry and rose fast from being a regional desk officer to the post of deputy director. As a woman in male dominated community, this was not an easy feat. I had to overcome many barriers and obstacles, traditional, socioeconomic and gender, which affected my life both positively and negatively. I achieved success the hard way, not having to pay with sexual favors. (a common trend in my country). Thus I did not gain popularity, but respect.

I was on my path, I was aspiring to become an Ambassador for my country and whatever the future held for me, maybe UN Secretary General. All these dreams had a time frame. But my world came tumbling down when I experience a near death battle with PCP pneumonia resulting in being diagnosed with AIDS. No, this news did not come as a surprise to me, even after the fact that I had tried my best to avoid infection by doing the right things. It did not come as a surprise because AIDS and death were now fully integrated in the everyday life of my surroundings. AIDS had been circulating around me and was drawing closer. I had bargained with God every day to spare me, I promised him I would be good. But as members of my own family began to die, the trap felt tighter. I knew my tum was near. And as sure as the sun will shine, it came, and with it my dreams died.

They died, but God had other plans for me. I got a little better and travel to America to pursue a Masters degree study. It was then that I discovered that I wouldn't have to die as soon as I had thought. There were these new drugs which, I learnt, would allow me to live longer. The advances in the treatment of AIDS had gone beyond only AZT. These treatments, that meant that nobody, needed to have to die right away. It meant that hope would be restored for people dying from AIDS. Since that discovery, I have been unable to think of anything else except to see these new wonder drugs are available for poor people dying with AIDS. Unfortunately, the cost of these drugs turned my dream turn into a nightmare.

Now however, my dream is still to become an ambassador, but a different type of ambassador. Advocate for the voiceless million who desperately need these drugs. I

am here to represent the crying Mother Africa, her children have suffered long enough. History is my witness. Every time I take these drugs, I cannot help, but feel guilty, knowing that my brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, uncles, aunts, our children, tomorrow's leaders and they are all dying, slowly and painfully because they are too poor to afford them. It is now not about my survival, but the survival of millions of people sentenced to death and their only crime is that of being poor. A friend here once asked me what I was going to do if I went back home without these drugs. I told her make the question 'What I would want on my tombstone'?

Everyday messages from home are of some one I know, dying of AIDS related illness. My neighbors, work colleagues, friends, local entertainers, politician, many members of the cabinet and parliament are dying. Everybody is dying. Personally, I have lost my brother Mike, my sister Eleanor, three brother-in-laws, cousins, aunts and uncles, all dying in the span of less than 6 years. This is too much for my mother. She has now developed High Blood pressure problem, something that we have never had in our family history. She laments that she never imaged she would be burying her children, but her children and grandchildren burying her. A women with very minimal education (grade 3), raised 9 of her own children and 7 from other relations on her own as a farmer (my father died in 1978), to levels of college. It was now her time to be enjoying the fruits of her labor. But no, at the age of 72 she is busy caring for her sick and dying children. This breaks my heart more than my infection. Her survival depends on us, she is too old to continue with this. I have to go back and look after her, but I cannot without the medication. Please help me to go back and spent my last years, not days, with my son and family. It hurts too much thinking about what my child's future would be like without me, it is every mother's nightmare.

Please allow us to have access to the treatment drug so we can raise our children a little longer and not leave them as orphans. This is the cry of every poor mother infected with the disease. If you can save the new born, you must save the mother, because it is only the mothers that gives total commitment to the healthy development of her baby (even if that baby is 60 years old). Orphanages can only do so much. Traditionally, when a mother dies, her children are raised by her relatives, but the intensity of which the AIDS epidemic has increased deaths of mothers combined with the frail economies, makes this practice difficult to maintain.

We Africans believe in what we call Umunthu, in Yiddish it is called Mensch and I think in English it is called Humanity. We cannot explain exactly what it is means. But it speaks of about humanness, gentleness, and hospitality, putting yourself out on the behalf of others, being vulnerable. It recognizes that my humanity is bound in yours, for we can only be humans together.

The effects of the AIDS epidemic in Malawi, like all other poor nations is worse than you can even begin to imagine. It has affected the cultures, economies, development, family structures. It has increase poverty, crimes and other social ills. Orphaned children are turned into domestic and sex slaves, prostitution is on the rise in an environment not conducive to this life style. The hospitals are unable to cope with the large increase of patients, the morgues are operating 24 hours, and the cemeteries are filling up fast. People are left hopeless, desperate and in total fear. Fear has created the violent discrimination of those who are publicly known to be infected. People are