"I Live a Quality Life with HIV"

by Ilse Krige December 3, 2004

From the Eikestad newspaper in South Africa:

He is not an activist, just a man with a quiet determination to overcome what he has encountered. And to help people overcome their own encounters.

These words could describe Charlie Johnson, an American who has been assisting HIV-positive people and patients with AIDS for the past four years, two of which were spent in South Africa – in Kayamandi in particular.

He asks not to be photographed. Not because he has a problem with his status, but the stigma still clinging to this pandemic, prohibits his target-market from contacting him if he is seen working with AIDS patients.

Charlie says, in a matter-of-fact way, that his physician friends have helped him to overcome heroin addiction. He was hospitalized and in a coma for three days. One cannot begin to describe the horror of his experience and in most cases, it is a very rare individual, indeed, that can carry on with life after experiencing such an addiction.

That he is also HIV-positive and that he was very ill at one stage, is evident from photos that Charlie does not hesitate to show.

"It was my South African life coach in America that encouraged me to discover the gift that I was. I heard how bad the situation was here and I wanted to see it for myself. I wanted to see why people were dying from yeast infections. Of course, it was because the medical system was being crushed. It is a bit overwhelming for the government and the health workers to have so many ill people on their hands," he says.

Why would an American come to help in Stellenbosch? "Here you are just rolling with the punches. The pandemic is huge, almost too big to comprehend. I am an interior decorator by trade, but I found strength in exercising the humanitarian part of me. The trick for me is to help other people."

Charlie talks with considerable admiration, not just about the AIDS patients he has met in Kayamandi, but also about the support systems around the patients. "The women in Kayamandi are true pillars of the society. They display their strength by being there for their grandchildren, even though they may have lost two, three children to the illness themselves. The love of a mother makes her the best nurse or doctor that anybody could have."

He speaks of the urgent need to confront AIDS by coming out in the open, or otherwise, by coming to a safe place where help is available and people in similar situations can give support. "I have watched people go to the grave with their silence. Patients need a place to raise their hands and say ‘I am HIV positive and I am afraid.’

"HIV is symbolic of any kind of plague. Anyone can find something to relate to. Most sufferers have courage and grace. It is amazing when people who are dying are done with the fighting and are no longer resentful. They are grateful for what they have received."

And then there are those who see themselves at death’s door, but hold onto hope when hearing that it is a mere matter of taking their medicines and eating healthy food. "They start living again," Charlie says. "I see people lifted up, treated and set back on their feet. It is happening here, in Kayamandi. And that is one of the reasons why Kayamandi, although not initially an area selected for the distribution of antiretroviral medicines, now receive these medicines."