James Madison University - Index

James Madison University - Madison - The Magazine of James Madison University - Spring 08 - Index

Be the change and serendipity
few people would speak of serendipity
and the aids crisis in south africa
in the same breath. after all, the south
african HiV/aids epidemic is considered
one of the most severe in the
world. it is ravaging the country’s
population with alarmingly high rates
of HiV infection, leaving hundreds
of thousands in need of antiretroviral
therapy and faced with a government
that has received criticism for being
negligent in handling the health crisis.
nonetheless, a JMU alumna, a professor
and students who are involved
in fighting the epidemic there are convinced
that serendipity can exist even in
grim reality and offer persuading proof
that in a quest to better the world, good
fortune can indeed be found seemingly
by accident.
for JMU health science professor
debra sutton an auspicious chain
of events was set into motion in 2005
when she received a phone call from an
old friend at duquesne University. He
was organizing his first study abroad
program, a visit to Cape Town, and
wanted advice from sutton, who has
organized many such programs. “i told
him to let me know if he thought it
would be a place i would be interested
in going,” sutton remembers. When
her friend returned to the states, she
received his hearty endorsement for her
to plan a similar trip.
among previous study abroad trips
sutton had conducted were several to Trinidad and Tobago,
trips that had an HiV/aids prevention focus. Well aware
that south africa had the highest rate of HiV/aids in the
world, she embarked on a path that would lead to a most
unexpected and welcome contact — a meeting she terms as
simple, undeniable fate.
40 Madison Magazine
Meant to be: In their efforts to Be the Change in the world,
JMU health science professor Debra Sutton, her Health 490 students,
and Alec and Amy Porter Zacaroli (’88) f ind serendipity in the midst
of an epidemic as they fight to save lives in South Africa.
Saving
lives in
South
Africa
B y J a n G i l l i s ( ’ 0 7 )
as she began contacting universities
in eastern Cape and Western Cape
provinces in south africa, filtering
through the responses and doing further
research, she came across a blog
of four Johns Hopkins University students
who had recently been to Cape
Town. “They wrote about their visit to
the desmond Tutu HiV Centre at the
University of Cape Town, the Kidzpositive
family fund and dr. paul Roux,”
says sutton. intrigued, she investigated
the Web links for each.
Roux, director of pediatric medicine
at the University of Cape Town
and groote schuur Hospital’s pediatric
HiV/aids service, is co-founder
of Kidzpositive, an organization dedicated
to improving the health of HiVpositive
children in south africa. Roux
responded immediately to sutton’s
e-mail inquiry and acquainted her with
the positive Beadwork project, a Kidzpositive
initiative. The project allows
mothers and grandmothers who are at
the clinic while their children are hospitalized
and treated to craft beadwork
projects, which they sell. The money
the women make from these crafts pays
for transportation to and from the hospital
and supports their families with
food and housing. “in U.s. dollars,
their income seems small, but it goes a
long way in improving the lives of families
affected by HiV/aids,” sutton
explains. Just as important, the work
offers families dignity and pride, scarce luxuries in a society that
can at times seem dominated by disease, shame and death.
Roux encouraged sutton to include a visit to the groote
schuur Hospital in Cape Town to see their work firsthand.
learning about Roux’s unique and successful charitable efforts
prompted her to investigate further possible destinations for
PhotograPhs courtesy of DeBra sutton anD aMy zacaroli (’88)