Boston Globe Profiles HIV-Positive Nigerian Woman To Be Awarded With Reebok Human Rights Award
The Boston Globe on Monday profiled Olayinka Enge, an HIV-positive Nigerian woman who will receive one of four 2004 Reebok Human Rights Awards for speaking out about her HIV-positive status, educating Nigerians about the disease and advocating for the rights of other people living with HIV/AIDS. Enge is scheduled to receive the award on Monday at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, according to the Globe. "When people like myself come out, you see the faces of the epidemic for the first time," Enge said, adding, "I'm not a fact or figure. And they can see that people like me can live a normal life." Stephen Dickerman, director of Reebok's human rights award program, said, "To understand her, you have to look at her at age 19, when she was diagnosed, and all the bravery and single-mindedness it took to do what she did." Enge, who is now 25, spends most of her time running the Nigerian Community of Women Living With HIV/AIDS, which she helped start (Donnelly, Boston Globe, 3/8).
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