Annie Lennox: An Inspiration For All

      In the year 2013, it is really easy for people to forget about the HIV/AIDS pandemic, especially if this disease affects no one close to you. Furthermore, we don’t see as many ad campaigns as we did in the latter eighties or early nineties, when the disease was still relatively new and fresh on everyone’s minds. This is why the The Annie Lennox SING Campaign  and her story from Ted.com are so poignant and significant in continuing to raise awareness.

      In Annie Lennox’ speech, she describes how she became aware of Nelson Mandela’s launch of his new campaign, in 2003, called 46664. This led her to learn more about how the HIV/AIDS pandemic is seriously affecting women and children in South Africa, and it inspired her to join the fight as well. She talks about how she met the founder of Treatment Action Campaign, Zachie Achmat, and how she became involved in helping them obtain comprehensive quality medical care for those living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Lennox also gives information about how Mandela’s country has one of the highest transmission rates of this disease in the world. She also talks about how as a woman and mother this issue touched her heart very deeply, and as a result, she became committed to raising money and awareness for this cause through using her notoriety as a pop singer as a platform.

      She has given numerous talks, speeches, and seminars all over the world as an appointed UN AIDS Ambassador, in an effort to help eliminate, by 2015, the transmissions of this virus from mother-to-child. Specifically, she tells the story about an orphan child that they filmed in South Africa, who was born with the virus because her mother passed it to her, and who was suffering severely due to poor nutrition/health care. At age seven, she had full blown AIDS, had pneumonia, and only weighed what a one-year-old child might weigh when Lennox left after filming her. The hospital doctors/nurses consequently put the child on a special diet and gave her excellent health care in the hopes of reversing her poor state of health. In five months, when Lennox returned, the child had transformed into a completely healthy and normal looking seven-year-old child! This story, along with the before/after the pictures of the child, clearly affected the audience, because almost everyone in the hall stood up when Annie Lennox asked if they agreed with her about a couple of issues. She asked the audience if they agreed that every mother affected by this disease deserves access to good nutrition and health care; and then she asked if they agreed that The Millennium Development Goals (a report disseminated by the United Nations), specifically goals 5 and 6, should be met by all worldwide governments. I was not there to see this speech in person, but it definitely inspired me to want to join this cause!

      As an entertainer, woman, mother, and African-American, I feel that I can and should make a difference with this issue as well. Creating music and sound design are creative ways to entertain, but helping to serve my fellow man would be an even more significant way to contribute my talents, money, and time. Hopefully, this blog post will inspire you, as the reader, to join as well!