Belinda Collins, An Australian Mum Meets An African Princess

In 2002 when Belinda Collins began work in the media team of World Vision Australia, she knew very little about HIV and AIDS. With World AIDS Day approaching, her first assignment was to make AIDS, real to Australia, a country with a relatively small HIV infection rate of 19,000 people. Belinda says she kept staring at the world-wide statistics: in 2002 there were around 40 million infected, 25 million dead and 13 million children orphaned. The numbers didn’t make sense to her and she didn’t want them to.

To make it real, Belinda needed to meet someone who was affected – the AIDS pandemic needed a name and a face. She did some research and came across a girl named Princess Kasune Zulu, from Zambia, who was roughly the same age as Belinda and who was one of the very few people in her country proudly admitting to being HIV positive. Down a crackly phone line they connected and made plans for the Princess to come to Australia.

“Meeting Princess was like meeting a long lost sister. We share a similar spirit, we’re both at home anywhere in the world and we draw our energy from meeting different people. Bono describes the place we happen to be born as an accident of latitude. On meeting Princess I realised how true this is. I had the great fortune to be born in Australia, a land of abundance and opportunity but I could just have easily been born into a country like Zambia that was crippled by AIDS. The AIDS pandemic was becoming real to me. It was personal. How dare it affect my friend like this.”

Why did you decide to write Princess’ story?

Two reasons: Firstly, I know people will be profoundly inspired by Warrior Princess. Princess is one of the world’s great emerging leaders and her story is just incredible.

Remember, this is a girl whose journey took her from the dusty Zambian village where she grew up all the way to the Whitehouse, where she helped convince the US government to spend $15 billion fighting the virus that killed her parents, her baby sister and later her brother. When she was diagnosed with HIV herself she was given six months to live. Her approach to life is so unique and joyful – I know every person who reads her story will feel alive and empowered.

“If my son was born in Zambia there is a 20 percent chance he wouldn’t make his fifth birthday, at least a 1% chance I would have died in childbirth and a 1/3 three chance he’d be orphaned by AIDS. I don’t understand why the forecast for two children should be so very different simply because one happens to be born in Australia and the other in Zambia, or another developing country. The disparity tears at my heart.”

I am continually amazed by Princess’ ability to switch gears – one moment she is singing and dancing around a village to teach young children about HIV and AIDS, the next she is discussing the challenges and policy solutions with world leaders. I watch in awe as she continually grows in wisdom, strength, kindness and faith.

Secondly, my role with World Vision gave me the opportunity to travel through much of Africa where I witnessed some of the greatest human suffering imaginable. I met eight year old children, orphaned and heading their ramshackle households; frail ageing grandparents caring for ten little children whose parents had passed away and in northern Uganda; children forced to fight and kill in adult wars. The questions people asked further highlighted the disparity in our lives, “What is your staple food in Australia?” How do you cope when your crops fail?” and “How many orphans do you care for in your home?” How could I explain obesity was a bigger problem in my country than hunger and that so very few children are orphaned by AIDS. After travelling through Africa, the AIDS pandemic was not only real, but it was in my heart and my head, I was broken by it, never to be the same.

Warrior Princess is my way of giving something back to the children and families whose memories burn in my heart. This is my way of saying „thank you?. I hope our work makes some difference.

Princess lives in Chicago and you live in Melbourne… how did you manage to collaborate on a book?

Being located in different time-zones, on opposite sides of the world, both with very different accents and cultural backgrounds certainly magnified the degree of difficulty for two first time authors! In 2006 we spent a month together in Chicago, New York and DC where we began the process. It has been three difficult years of work since that time: thousands of emails and phone calls up to eight hours in length whenever our time zones allowed us to both be awake. I even spent one Christmas in Seattle with Princess while I was pregnant– I was sick tired, grumpy and homesick but we kept at it. None of this would be possible without the support of my husband. The entire process has really taught me that all things are possible.

In the three years since we started writing, Princess and I have both married (we delivered speeches at each others weddings) and I now have a one year old child (to whom Princess is Godmother).

Has becoming a mother affected the way you see the AIDS pandemic?

If my son was born in Zambia there is a 20 percent chance he wouldn?t make his fifth birthday, at least a 1% chance I would have died in childbirth and a 1/3 three chance he?d be orphaned by AIDS. I don?t understand why the forecast for two children should be so very different simply because one happens to be born in Australia and the other in Zambia, or another developing country. The disparity tears at my heart.

Why is southern Africa affected so much more by AIDS than a country like Australia?

The reasons are fascinating and complicated. When AIDS was „discovered? in Australia, our government had the foresight and the budget to launch the „Grim Reaper? advertising campaign that warned us we were all at risk. We all have TVs in our homes and ready access to newspapers where the ads could reach us. Here every GP can test you for HIV at no charge and if you do happen to be infected there?s good access to treatment and counseling. Geographically we are isolated from the areas where AIDS is widespread – it?s much harder for AIDS to travel here.

Comparatively, the conditions that allowed AIDS to march across southern Africa have been described as a „perfect storm?. Take Zambia as an example – here is a landlocked country bordered by eight neighbors? meaning HIV can travel freely. The particular sub-strain of HIV in southern Africa is slow to progress from infection to symptoms. A person can be infected for years before they even know about it – it?s a disease that mainly affects young people who may have a number of sexual partners during this time. Things have changed now but for years condoms were difficult to access in Zambia – people live so remotely. These problems are exacerbated by a crippled public health system. Even as late as 2000, there were only three HIV testing facilities in the whole of Zambia. At the time a test cost $3 and most people exist on less than $1.25 per day. Conditions imposed by international money lenders on Zambia mean no more than 5% of GDP can be spent on civil servants – including doctors and nurses. People never stood a chance. Thank God the tide is turning and many of these problems are being overcome.

What do you want people to do?

I want people to get angry and be moved to act. Today preventable diseases like HIV and

AIDS, TB and Malaria are locked in a deadly embrace with extreme poverty. But there are a number of road maps in place to end the suffering in our lifetime. We should all know about strategies like the Millennium Development Goals that can change the face of humanity.

We can actually be the generation that chooses to end this suffering. Can you imagine that? My faith in humanity says we will do what it takes.

My top five things we can all do today are:

1. At the back of Warrior Princess and on our web site www.princesszulu.com is a list

of resources so you can arm yourself with knowledge.

2. Tell everyone you know – your friends, family, workmates, church mates, school

friends and inspire them to act.

3. Write to your local member of parliament and tell them you want them to honor

their commitment to give 0.7% of GDP to ending extreme poverty. Our politicians

only act if we tell them we care.

4. Wherever possible buy Fair Trade products. Too often the coffee, chocolate, flowers and other products we buy are grown by children and families who aren?t paid anywhere near enough to sustain themselves. We have to remember that each time we take a sip of coffee.

5. We can actually can end extreme poverty if each of us in the developed world gives just $200 per year. Can we really stand by and let people die when the solution is so close at hand? Find your favorite charity and start donating today.

As Princess says, our lives will be measured not by what we accumulate or how long we live but by the legacy we leave behind.

facebook: facebook.com/warriorprincesszulu., twitter: collinsbelinda