Kevin Winge does not believe in giving up. Outraged by the overwhelming spread of AIDS in South Africa, including their president, Thabo Mbeki’s bewildering denial of the cause and spread of HIV—Mbeki actually appointed a health minister who prescribed garlic and African potatoes as a remedy over anti-retroviral medications for handling HIV care—Winge keeps returning to Guguletu, a township near Cape Town in South Africa, since 2000 to care for the faces behind the increasing numbers of those living with a devastating AIDS pandemic.

Winge, Executive Director of Open Arms of Minnesota, a twenty year non-profit organization that provides meals and services to people living with HIV/AIDS, spent six months working with AIDS workers in townships of South Africa. As a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellow, he chronicled his experiences in his just published book Never Give Up: Vignettes from Sub-Saharan Africa in the Age of AIDS. His highly personal account provides a sobering investigation into the lives of poverty stricken South Africans who live in mostly HIV infected communities where a majority won’t make it past the next year.

Rather than rattle off the growing numbers of a continuing death toll, Winge chose instead to focus on various individuals and their day to day private struggles dealing with their own HIV/AIDS condition. He compares their wide spread pandemic with the early years of AIDS in Greenwich Village in the 1980s, something he witnessed from seeing many of his friends die while living in the Manhattan area of New York City.

Well over 300 people showed up for a book signing reception with appetizers at the Woman’s Club of Minneapolis on August 14th. As Winge signed copies, people chatted and bustled about with mounting anticipation for the riveting book reading of Never Give Up that followed in the auditorium. After numerous poignant slides featuring the community from Gugaletu were shown, the celebrated author introduced four distinguished performers whom he personally selected to read chapters from his book: Linda Kelsey, five-time Emmy nominated actress from Lou Grant and a local Park Square Theatre veteran; T Mychael Rambo, actor/singer frequently with Penumbra Theatre and a St. Joan’s guest performer; Patrick Scully, artist/activist and founder and former director of Patrick’s Cabaret; and Sally Wingert, film/theater actress and 16 year company member of the Guthrie.

One incredible statistic was announced: This June 19th, Open Arms just delivered their one millionth meal, revealed Winge. Scully, up first, read from the first chapter, Guguletu, South Africa, via New York City. The towering actor stood reading from a music stand with a relaxed calming demeanor.

Excerpt: John’s death was a wake-up call for me. I realized that one day I would have to account for what I did, or what I failed to do, during the AIDS epidemic. I don’t mean that I would have to account to a higher power. I would have to account to myself.

Would my compassion end with the death of John and other friends who had tested positive and died? Could I live with the hypocrisy of turning my back on others living with HIV/AIDS the way so many in this country turned their backs on John and thousands like him who were the first to be infected with HIV? What difference did it make if someone with HIV/AIDS was gay or black or female or poor or African? Had AIDS taught me nothing?

If I turned my back on AIDS—be it someone living with the disease down the street from me in Minneapolis, or halfway around the world in African countries—I would be no different from all those who turned their backs on John—and all the others like John—in the 1990s. I knew I couldn’t do that and live with myself.

Excerpt: It may seem indulgent to think about helping one kid in a township to get a pair of expensive skates when thousands of others go hungry and thousands more dream of receiving the AIDS drugs that could prolong their lives. But I always remember one of my mother’s adages: “Where there’s life, there’s hope.” And there must be hope.

Bheki is both life and hope. He is overflowing with optimism and confidence and vitality in a neighborhood—no, in a world—that does not have enough of these traits.

Those of us born into the power and privilege that come with being white can never imagine the courage it took for a young black kid from the townships to make an appointment with a white guy from America to share his dream of becoming “South Africa’s greatest in-liner.”

Excerpt: In the 1970s, Anneline and her band Joy recorded a song called “Paradise Road,” which crossed over to white radio stations during a time in South Africa when radio was not suppose to play “black music.” The song was a number one hit. Anneline went on to win music awards, perform with Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba, and tour internationally. Twenty-some years later, the Guguletu newspaper took a phrase from the song—“Paradise is almost closing down”—and used it as the headline of an article detailing Anneline’s declining health. The paper also juxtaposed two photos of Anneline: one as a healthy young pop star singing into a microphone, and the other one, predictably, a photo of an emaciated Anneline in the end stages of AIDS.

Excerpt of last paragraph: A long time ago I quit trying to make sense out of the AIDS epidemic. I found ways to disengage from my work and the disease so that I could sleep at night. But what sense is there in the rape of an eight-year-old girl?

Of course, it happens all the time. I wonder how many eight-year-olds—girls and boys—have been raped in the time it’s taken me to write this story. But I hadn’t really thought about it before. We don’t think about these things until we have to. Until we know someone. And then we can’t think of anything else.

It keeps us up at night.
And it should.

Excerpt: In South Africa, children wear school uniforms, and appropriate shoes are part of that uniform. Ntombizanele’s well-worn black shoes had broken—again. The day before she had worn her only other shoes, her sneakers, to school. She was told to go home and not return until she had black shoes to wear with her uniform.

Again, I asked a question that I knew the answer to. Why wasn’t she getting her shoes repaired when the townships are filled with shoe repair stands? Nombulelo’s daughter looked at her grandmother, who opened her empty hands, shrugged her shoulders, and said, “No money.”

. . . Less than a dollar and a half was keeping a child from school. I reached into my pocket for the ten rand.

So, should you want to know what the most difficult situation I have faced in South Africa is, this is it. It’s a twelve-year-old girl who couldn’t go to school because she didn’t have shoes. But please don’t ask.

Excerpt: There is a spiritual that I have heard sung at every church service I’ve attended in Guguletu, at every funeral. The chorus goes something like: “Never give up. Never give up. We shall never, never, never—never give up.”

Winge’s compassion remains steadfast in dealing with HIV/AIDS outreach. His book, a heartfelt testimonial, combats issues of racism and homophobia with signs of real hope and change that are moving mountains of adversity.

With the mounting devastation of this South African community, the majority of our nation complacently thinks that the AIDS crisis is pretty much under control here in the United States. Well, if you caught ABC Network’s Prime Time Special “Out of Control: AIDS in Black America” broadcasted 8/24 you will find we are facing yet again the resurging of the AIDS pandemic right here in our own country.

The special probed into the latest statistics and found that the leading cause of the death for African-American women between the ages of 25-44 is AIDS. Five significant reasons were cited.

• Reason 1: Ignorance Among People in Power and Those Who Should Know Better- The stigma of having AIDS is so intensely ostracizing in the black community that men remain silent and in denial.
• Reason 2: Government Failure- Many African-American men go into prison HIV-negative and 40% come out HIV-positive. Government regulations prevent access to condom availability in prisons.
• Reason 3: Sex and Patterns of Sexual Behavior- Multiple sexual relationships are now becoming much higher for black men. For every 85 African-American men there are 100 African-American women. This demographic imbalance has increased risky sexual behavior for men of color.
• Reason 4: What It Means to Be AIDS and Be Black- With virtually no organized HIV/AIDS activism in the black community for the past two decades, this means no demand from our legislation and educational systems to organize HIV prevention, awareness and training in black communities, and funding for healthcare and HIV testing and outreach among this demographic. [Minnesota’s Urban League and Minnesota AIDS Project support groups may prove to be somewhat of an exception.]

  It’s considered a well known common practice called “Being on the down low” for black men who pretend to be straight to have unsafe sex with male partners and not tell their female partners and continue to engage in sex with them. Again the stigma of having AIDS is so intensely ostracizing in the black community that men remain silent and in denial.

• Reason 5: Failure to Lead in the Black Community- The HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to be completely ignored in black faith based communities. The most powerful and prominent voice in the African-American community is the church and they choose to not discuss issues dealing with HIV/AIDS and prevention. Eugene Rivers, a pastor in Boston, has now turned his attention to AIDS: “Silence is suicidal. A clear moral compass has failed its children,” he offered.

ABC’s Prime Time Live Special included a report from the late Peter Jennings who researched the information behind these five reasons listed. Clearly there is work to be done by our churches, legislation and the public about how to prevent the spread of HIV and remove the stigma that ostracizes our brothers and sisters. We all have to wake up and deal with the complexities of our human sexuality. We all need to educate ourselves with comprehensive facts and statistics. Only by facing the truth, can we eradicate this pandemic.

Never Give Up may be purchased online at www.itascabooks.com and www.amazon.com.

Michael Reinbold, a continuing web reporter, freelances as a writer and banquet caterer. A passionate believer in SJA's mission of social justice and collaborative ministry, Michael is an SJA Choir member, mass reader, Team Oz AIDS rider and Grace House volunteer cook. With an extensive background in theater, photography and fundraising, he relishes all aspects of the arts, staying fit and inspiring and working with people.

All proceeds from sale of Kevin Winge’s book Never Give Up benefit Open Arms of Minnesota, a nonprofit organization committed to providing meals and related services to people with HIV/AIDS and other chronic diseases in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, as well as people in South Africa.

To learn more about Open Arms and its programs, visit www.openarmsmn.org.

Jeanne Schaum has been attending SJA since 1986. She teaches Sunday School and is a member of the Stewardship Committee. Jeanne has participated in the Heartland AIDS Ride and the Red Ribbon Ride. In 2001, she graduated from the College of Saint Benedict with a degree in Social Work and then received her Master of Social Work in 2002. In her free time she enjoys hanging out with friends and family, reading, listening to music, going to sporting events, and playing softball.