30 November 2001

Bonn, Germany: Brigitte Syamalevwe brings years of experience as an international consultant and speaker on HIV/AIDS issues to her present position as a national UN Volunteer attached to the Zambian Ministry of Education. The mother of 11 children has been living with HIV/AIDS for the past 10 years. She knows what she is talking about. 

The UN Volunteer sees her challenges as serving as the national chairperson of the Network of People living with HIV/AIDS in Zambia, managing her large family as well as a support group comprised of 169 orphans representing "60 household in distress".

A peer counsellor, Brigitte forms or strengthens HIV/AIDS support groups and prepares national and international strategic plans on HIV/AIDS. She develops, influences and implements policy on HIV/AIDS. She facilitates HIV/AIDS conferences and workshops and produces training material.

In addition, Brigitte augments efforts by HIV/AIDS community-based organizations and non-government organizations in steps to reduce HIV/AIDS infections and to establish a multisectoral, institutional framework for coordinating and implementing HIV/AIDS programmes in Zambia. A member of the National AIDS Council Zambia, she advocates for rights of people living with HIV/AIDS in work places.

Brigitte believes the greatest lesson she has learned in her capacity as a human research and curriculum developer is that "appropriate placement of volunteers in appropriate positions and equipping them with skills and training to match with their responsibilities pays".

The UN Volunteer took part in the 1994 World AIDS Summit and was invited by the Clinton Administration in January 2001 to map out new strategies for governments and interfaith organizations. She also travelled as an education consultant to Ghana to advise and work with the education sector to review the Ghana education strategic plan. A former French teacher, she completed a course in education at the Nkhuruma Secondary Teachers Training College and has taken special training in HIV/AIDS counselling.

Brigitte Syamalevwe has been identified "as a volunteer who has devoted her energy, time and resources for the prevention and care of the sick" by former Ghanaian President Jerry John Rawlings, an Eminent Person for the UN International Year of Volunteers (IYV) invited to serve in that capacity by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Brigitte is known as the "mother of many" housing 30-45 community children in their five farm houses. Before the Third United Nations Conference for the Least Developed Countries, Brigitte made the following plea:

"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 the planning for what is mine…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."