Some of you may have already heard the sad news that our friend and diarist
Thembi Ngubane died a few days ago.
I've had a hard time finding the right words for this moment.
Thembi thought about death almost every day. Yet she was the most alive
person I've ever met. She sometimes asked me why I chose her to do an audio
diary about her life. But I feel like she chose me.
Thembi had been struggling off and on with TB. A week ago she learned that she
had multi-drug resistant TB. She died Thursday night in the hospital. She was 24.
Thembi gave me, and many of us, a lesson in courage and in embracing the
craziness of life - good and bad. She was brave and open about living with AIDS
at a time when most South Africans were quiet about the epidemic. She thought
the virus should be scared of her, rather than the other way around. She drew
pictures of her virus. She talked to it in the mirror. She gave it orders.
Thembi had a short life. But it was a full one by any measure. She had a child.
She found a soul mate in her longtime boyfriend, Melikhaya. Her story was heard
by millions of people in a dozen countries and five languages. On her tour of the
United States, she met Bill Clinton and then-Senator Barak Obama. She traveled
to Germany and India as a Unicef ambassador. She was a contestant in an
African reality TV show. In South Africa, she became a role model for young
people living with HIV. She experienced the hard edges of life in ways that I still
find hard to fathom.
But there are a few poignant moments that will never make it into her obituary.
I remember a high school outside of Durban where Thembi was speaking. It was
radical for someone - a young person especially - to stand up in front of a crowd
and say, "I have AIDS". When she finished speaking, the students crowded
around her, wanting an autograph. With no paper in sight, arms and legs were
thrust forward and Thembi signed each one with her pen.
I remember when Thembi was invited to address the South African Parliament.
"Accept that AIDS is here," she told the country's leaders. But life is a mix of
cosmic and mundane. The next day, Thembi was back to her normal life:
standing in line at the clinic for antiretroviral drugs, caring for her baby, and
hoping for a job.
By now, we are all so familiar with the statistics. More than 5000 people die every
day from AIDS. Somehow, it never seemed Thembi would be one of them.
Thembi embodied great ambition to be heard and seen. She thought it was
important to speak out against stigma and discrimination. But she was also
motivated by fear: she didn't want to be anonymous... or forgotten.
Thembi we heard you.
And we miss you.
Joe Richman
Radio Diaries
We put together a remembrance that aired on NPR.
You can listen on our website: http://www.radiodiaries.org
"Seeing people who were losing hope, who were on the death road, made me
realize that there is no time to waste. People needed to be aware. I felt like
maybe some of the way AIDS has been portrayed hasn't helped them. Maybe
people don't feel the messages, maybe they don't hear them. Maybe people
need someone they can relate to, someone who is just like them, to spell it out to
them. I felt like I owed it to everyone to just be heard."
- Thembi Ngubane
------------------------------------------------------------
We will be remembering and honoring Thembi's life at her funeral in
South Africa this Saturday.
If you would like to make a contribution in her honor, please consider a donation to:
The Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa. They have been tireless
advocates for treatment for all and Thembi was a member:
http://www.tac.org.za/community/donate
Doctors Without Borders/MSF. They launched a pilot program in 2004
to distribute Anti-Retroviral drugs (ARVs) in Thembi's township, Khayelitshia.
The program directly impacted Thembi's life. Through MSF, Thembi was able to get
the right treatment at a time when the South African government was doing
very little. http://doctorswithoutborders.org
Thembi leaves behind her four-year old daughter, Onwabo. Many of you
contributed in the past to Thembi's family, helping them to purchase their own
house in the township. Radio Diaries is setting up a fund to help with the
continuing care of Onwabo. To contribute, please follow this link:
Thembi's AIDS Diary Fund or copy/paste this URL to your browser:
https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1001500&uniqueID=633800748291775952
Thembi's project unfolded over many years and would never have happened
without the unwavering support of so many. On behalf of Thembi and Radio
Diaries, it has been a profound experience to work with all of you. Special thanks
to Thembi's family: Patricia Ngubane, JJ, Onwabo, and Melikhaya Mpumela,
who was the partner for Thembi and this project every step of the way.
And thanks to Associate Producer Anayansi Diaz-Cortes, whose wisdom and
tenacity made the the bad parts better and the good parts better too. To Jane Saks
who continues to elevate this project to loftier ground. To Richard Mills who put
aside his own work and life to help Thembi and the project whenever he was
needed. To Sue Johnson, whose strength and spirit were part of the DNA of this
idea from the beginning.
And to all who helped guide this project in so many ways: Ben Shapiro, Deborah
George, Chris Turpin, Ellen Ruiters and Africa Jam, Miyuki Jokiranta, Mike
Rahfaldt, Angie Kapelianis, Jo Menell, Albie Sachs, Zackie Achmet, Sue
Valentine, Susanna Nicholson, Ira Glass, Czerina Patel, Damon Forbes, Joe
Chakela, Sheer Entertainment, Treatment Action Campaign, Desmond Tutu HIV
Foundation, Nelson Mandela Foundation, Medecins Sans Frontieres, Ubuntu
Education Fund, South African Consulate, US Consulate in South Africa, Artists
for a New South Africa, Kaiser Family Foundation, Open Society Institute,
UNICEF, Arts Engine, Resorts Advantage, VH1, Ronald McDonald House Charities,
Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS Ford Foundation South Africa, Levi Strauss
Foundation, SABC, BBC World Service, and National Public Radio.
No comments:
Post a Comment