16 May 2001

Brussels, Belgium: The following is an intervention of Zambian national UN Volunteer Brigitte Syamalevwe to the interactive session on health at the Third United Nations Conference for the Least Developed Countries.

I am not going to bore you with what in French is called la langage de sourd. I am very happy to be among you as a woman living with HIV/AIDS, as a truly African daughter. And I thank you because I am not an intellectual as you are -- specialists in your specialities. My speciality is love, forgiveness and courage to [overcome] obstacles.

I am a teacher by profession, teaching French and fine arts, but I am a mother. I am speaking to your ability to give birth to good words and good deeds. I want to address myself to your hearts, not to your intellectual ability, not to your heads. I want to talk to you because I know each one of you--each one of us--has strength within ourselves to change things, to dare to care.

Some of us hide ourselves in professions, in degrees, in other commitments. But just dare sit with yourself and explore your innermost, and find where the position of volunteering in supporting humanity, in supporting life.

I want to approach my brother from WHO who said, "The diseases of tomorrow are going to be greater than the diseases of today". In another way I want to tell you that if you do not find the power within yourselves to act now to save humanity, the problem of Africa is going to be the problem of Europe, it is going to be the problem of the world.

I stand here as a mother of 11 children. I do not want anyone to sit in conferences and plan the way to look after my children. But I want to be part and parcel of health planning, and that is what I understand by mutual respect and trust. Involve me in planning for what is mine.

It is surprising to find that the health situation, or the health institutions, the medical men, are the richest persons in the world. The researchers are the richest persons in the world. And yet in all the Greek medicine, when a doctor lost his patient, he wasn't paid. But now we are even holding the lives of others. We have removed the responsibility of people to look after their own workers within their homes and their communities to a specialized place where we get money out of the sufferings of others. I plead with your hearts today to help me and many other people from the least developed world to find the strength and the dignity of volunteering with the support that you can give us to do our own things, because we all believe in love and humanity. Thank you very much.