[ASU] African Hero Finalists

[Titus Gwemende]

Dear colleagues

On behalf of the Heroes Nominationcommittee and te Executive,l would like to 
announce to you the 3 finalists for the African Hero of the Year Award for 
2010.Please take time to read their profiles underneath as presented by those 
who submitted the nominations.Also google them for more information;

See you tonight in the Library (Rollins room) at 8pm for the vote;

1) Zach Achmat-Founder of Treatment  Action Campaign and prominent HIV and 
AIDS activist in Afrca
2) Dr Philista Onyango-Prominent Child Rights activist in Africa

3) Rebecca Garang-Peace maker and Widow of Late great Vice President John 
Garang of Sudan


I would like to nominate Dr. Philista Onyango for the ASU hero award because 
of her love, commitment and dedication to the concerns of African children. 
Her key maxim has been, "Children do not apply to be born, so they deserve the 
best from us." She is the unsung hero who in the face of heavy adversity, 
Philista Onyango,Ph.D., has made a tremendous impact on the safety and welfare 
of children in herhome country of Kenya and on Africa and the world. In 1981, 
while teaching at the University of Nairobi, she became aware many children 
were being abused through child labor. In 1982, she conducted a study on child 
labor in Kenya, thefirst of its kind in Africa. From the onset, she and her 
fellow researchers meta lot of resistance from leaders, including the then 
President, who declared there was no child labor in Kenya. This began a long 
campaign and many hardships that finally led to the creation of the African 
Network for the Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect in 
1986. Since then, ANPPCAN has worked with the African Union (AU) to address 
issues ofchildren in situations of armed conflict, which led to the African 
Charter onthe Rights and Welfare of the Child and the Committee of Experts on 
Children in  Africa. ANPPCAN has observer status with the AU and the 
Commission on People and Human Rights; and has established chapters in 19 
African countries with the 20th being established in Rwanda. Onyango initiated 
Home Based Day-care Centers in Nairobi slums to protect the children while 
providing them with affordable education.She initiated Community Organization 
Training after research showed that most ofthe street children came from the 
slums because of the appalling living conditions. This training helped slum 
areas improve sanitation, drinking waterand their environments as well as 
address the education needs for
 their children. She also initiated the formation of the Coalition on Child 
Rights and Child Protection in Kenya. Child protection teams have been created 
in 30districts. Through ANPPCAN and Onyango's dedication to the protection 
ofchildren, thousands of children throughout Africa have been able to get off 
thestreets and thousands more have been saved from abuse and child labor.I 
hope am not late in submitting this nomination. Thank you and be blessed.

.............................................................................
I propose Mrs. Rabecca Garang, widow of Sudan's late First Vice President, 
John Garang who died mysteriously immediately after assuming the position of 
First Vice President.

One person from which a weighty allegation could have come was Mr. Garang's 
wife of many years, Rebecca. A careless or emotive comment from her would 
have carried the necessary weight nonetheless and dramatically changed the 
situation in the Sudan and indeed the entire region. It is not only the 
peace process that would have collapsed irretrievably, but also the war 
would have resumed with much ferocity.

It is difficult to know whether Mrs. Garang actually appreciated the 
weighty responsibility providence placed on her shoulders at that moment of 
history, or whether her response was a function of her experience as a 
woman, who always worked side by side with her husband, was herself already 
seasoned by the southern Sudanese struggle to allow maturity triumph over 
emotion. Hear her: "I don't agree (with the foul play theory). God creates 
people for a purpose. Garang had it and had finished his mission . . . it 
was time for my husband. It has come and I will take it like that."

What was clear in all these was that Mrs. Rebecca Garang acquitted herself 
most creditably and without doubt deserves the accolade befitting a hero 
for all time. Today, she serves as an advisor to the president on Southern 
Sudan affairs. The solution to the war in Sudan might be enigmatic but one 
person has tried to think in a unified way rather than play a game of blame 
which could not help anyone. Rabecca Garang is but one of Africa's unsung 
heroes.
...............................................................................

Zackie Achmat was 14 when he took his first direct action. It was 1976, and he
felt fellow pupils at his "coloured", or mixed-race, school (where he was sent
because of his Malaysian and Muslim roots) were not sufficiently supportive of
the anti-apartheid education boycott spreading from the black townships around
Johannesburg. So he set fire to the school and nobody went to classes.Thirty
years later, he is still using direct action in pursuit of what he believes is
right.

In recent years, his struggle has focused on liberating South Africa's poor
from
what amounted to the death sentence of Aids.The HIV-positive activist founded
the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) 10 years ago as a direct challenge to Thabo
Mbeki's outlandish views on the causes of Aids and refusal to provide
conventional treatment through the public health service despite South Africa
having one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world.Achmat was
radicalised by his communist father and shop-steward mother in his youth. He
was
sent to prison for three months after setting the school on fire and, by the
time he was 18, had been in and out of jail four times for political
activities.

With liberation from apartheid — and about the time he discovered he was
HIV-positive — Achmat founded the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian
Equality which, in the early 1990s, played a central role in ensuring that
Calvinist laws banning gay and lesbian sex were overturned in the new
constitution. its guarantees of equality became the levers for overturning laws
banning sodomy and requiring the government to recognise same-sex marriages.

Then came the TAC. Achmat's anti-apartheid background gave him a legitimacy in
criticising the ruling African National Congress leadership despite its
attempts
to paint him as a stooge of the pharmaceutical industry.TAC began by
campaigning
to force drug companies to lower their prices. The big US and European
manufacturers charged several times the cost of generics from India, but
pressured the South African government to block imports of the cheaper drugs.

Achmat challenged the ban on generic drugs by flying to Thailand to buy
thousands of capsules of Fluconazole, a treatment for thrush, at 4p a capsule.
Pfizer was selling its patented version in South Africa for more than £5 a
capsule. Achmat was arrested for illegally importing drugs, but the ensuing
publicity forced Pfizer to donate its version to public hospitals in South
Africa, setting off a wave of price cuts for anti-Aids drugs by other firms.


His struggle to see antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) in public hospitals has often
been as bitter as his resistance to apartheid. He called then health minister,
Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, a murderer for blocking the distribution of
anti-Aids drugs. Two years ago, he was arrested for occupying government
offices
to demand that the minister and others be charged with culpable homicide over
the death of an HIV-positive prisoner who was denied ARVs.

Through all this, he was battling the virus and refusing ARVs until every South
African had access to them for free. But when he became seriously ill, Nelson
Mandela appealed to him to abandon his pledge, which he did five years ago.

In January 2008, Achmat married his partner, Dalli Weyers. An appeal court
judge, Edwin Cameron, officiated at the ceremony and the master of ceremonies
was Ann Grant, a former British high commissioner to South Africa.*