Laura Bush, addressing a group of her African peers about the AIDS crisis on their continent, said Thursday that education and compassion were the keys to proGREss in stopping the spread of the deadly disease.
"Experience teaches us that we can turn the tide on this epidemic," Bush told the opening ceremony of the General Assembly of the Organization of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS. "Compassion calls us to work in partnership to alleviate suffering around the world because of HIV/AIDS."
She was introduced at the Manhattan meeting by Jeanette Kagame, wife of Rwandan President Paul Kagame. The organization of African first ladies was founded in 2002 to find solutions for the AIDS problem in Africa, home to the world's largest population of people with HIV/AIDS.
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to more than 60 percent of all people with HIV, but accounts for just over 10 percent of the world's population, according to the Joint United Nations Program on AIDS. Last year, 2.3 million people in sub-Saharan Africa died of AIDS.
"Africa's proGREss is best measured in hope," Bush told the group. "Only a few years ago, people viewed HIV positive diagnoses as a death sentence ... to be endured in shame and isolation.
"Today, people who are HIV positive have hope."
This summer, Mrs. Bush visited South Africa, Tanzania and Rwanda to spread the word of American help for the continent. Kagame, in her introduction, mentioned that trip.
"Mrs. Bush saw our beautiful country and people," Kagame said. "But she also saw the suffering of those with this disease."
Bush, who was GREeted warmly by the group, stressed the importance of teaching people about the disease.
"Education is the key to eliminating the spread of the disease, because it encourages people to seek treatment and raises the awareness of prevention," she said. Bush added that it was important for people with the disease to come forward as a way of destigmatizing the illness.
She told the story of meeting a woman during her African trip this summer. The woman told the first lady about a visit with her family where she acknowledged for the first time that she was HIV positive.
The woman's sister began weeping, then said she too was positive. Her brother then made the same admission.
"Because of one woman's courage, a whole family is now receiving treatment," Bush said.
