A boy’s eyes travel with him wherever he goes

Riveting images and emotions remain after visit to HIV/AIDS-ravaged Africa.

By: David Campbell
   John McGoldrick, Bristol-Myers Squibb executive vice president and a Vandeventer Avenue resident, said his visits to HIV/AIDS-ravaged regions of southern Africa have left him with riveting images and emotions that he said will forever be seared into his heart and mind.
   He described an encounter with an 11-year-old boy from a very poor region terribly ill in a clinic, whom he said embodied the monumental public-health crisis that Africa faces.
   "His eyes travel with me wherever I go," Mr. McGoldrick said. "Everyone in the world needs to recognize that this pandemic in Africa rages on. The pandemic is still winning, and there is a huge amount we still must do to bring it under control."
   He continued: "What’s happened as I’ve traveled and gotten to know the region, it’s sort of gripped me, and I have become genuinely passionate about the problem of trying to address it. I’m fortunate to be in a position to do something."
   Mr. McGoldrick was part of a delegation to Africa last week that visited several community treatment centers being funded by Secure the Future, an initiative Bristol-Myers Squibb and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation launched in 1999 to help alleviate the HIV/AIDS crisis among women and children in sub-Saharan Africa.
   Secure the Future is a public and private undertaking that seeks to build a range of model and sustainable approaches that address pressing medical, educational and community outreach needs in some of the most resource-constrained areas of the world.
   More than 170 grants have been awarded in nine countries in southern and West Africa under the initiative. It is the first and largest corporate commitment of its kind to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa, a Bristol-Myers Squibb statement said.
   Countries that have received help under the program are South Africa, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali and Senegal. Bristol-Myers Squibb said it has committed $120 million to the initiative.
   Secure the Future incorporates public education programs aimed at prevention, training programs for public health workers, home-based care strategies, interventions to aid orphans and other vulnerable children, clinical research and medical care.
   Mr. McGoldrick said the program is now establishing six community-based treatment centers in resource-constrained communities in sub-Saharan Africa. There are programs being established in South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana and Mali.
   Last week, he joined an estimated 5,000 residents of the rural KwaZulu Natal Province of South Africa to formally mark the launching of such a program in nearby Ladysmith.
   The goal of the event was to generate awareness of the center and its services, explain the importance of prevention and debunk the stigma associated with the disease, a Bristol-Myers Squibb statement said.
   Mr. McGoldrick also visited, among other places and events, a groundbreaking or "sod-turning" ceremony for construction of a new, pediatric HIV/AIDS medical facility in Swaziland.
   The executive vice president said this most recent trip has left him with powerful images of hope as well. He said he can still see the faces of HIV-negative children born to HIV-positive mothers — and this because the mothers were in Secure the Future programs that seek to halt the virus at birth.
   "The mothers are happier than any other mother in the world because they feared their children would be doomed from birth," Mr. McGoldrick said.