Washington Post Profiles HIV-Positive South African Woman Featured in AIDS Diary Project
The Washington Post on Wednesday profiled Thembi Ngubane, an HIV-positive resident of the township of Khayelitsha, South Africa, who recorded an audio diary of her life for the past year. Ngubane, whose diary aired last week on NPR, "has become a voice for a disease that is numbing and overwhelming in its power and reach," the Post reports. Her experience has gained her recognition and brought her to the U.S. for a tour during which she has met with members of Congress and spoken at a church. On Friday she plans to record a segment with former President Bill Clinton for a CNN segment on HIV/AIDS. Ngubane said every time she gives a talk she knows someone will bring up the "difficult question" of death. "I do know AIDS is a fatal disease," Ngubane said, adding, "But you can't say, 'I'm going to get sick and die.' You have to do something while you're still alive; you have to keep on living" (Pressley Montes, Washington Post, 4/26). Ngubane's reporting project was sponsored by a Kaiser Family Foundation journalism fellowship award (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 4/19).
NPR's "Talk of the Nation" on Tuesday included a discussion with Ngubane; Joe Richman, executive producer of Radio Diaries Productions; and Brenda Wilson, science correspondent for NPR (Conan, "Talk of the Nation," NPR, 4/26). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.
A Kaisernetwork.org interview with Richman is available online.
