Ngqisha is a leading member of the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa, a non-profit organization that campaigns for treatment for people with HIV, for methods to reduce new HIV infections, and for women's rights and gender equality. The Global AIDS Alliance is responsible for Ngqisha's speaking tour along the east coast, which coincides with the first of several Congressional hearings on progress in the fight against global HIV/AIDS.
Before spending most of the lunch explaining the role of TAC in the South African community, a soft-spoken Ngqisha expressed her gratitude for the students in attendance.
"Seeing a group of students like this reminds me of the struggle we were in as African black students, when we were facing the oppression of apartheid, fighting for better education for all and freedom for all people," Ngqisha said. "We were working in solidarity, as students. When I see a group like this, it makes me happy inside."
TAC also runs a literacy program through which literacy practitioners, like Ngqisha, travel door-to-door educating community members about the virus, the stigma associated with it and the government's policy and contribution to HIV/AIDS health care. The group runs campaigns in order to pressure the government to make change.
"We need the government to be accountable to the people," Ngqisha said. "Five million people are living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa and half of them are women."
Last year, TAC also began a women's rights program after it realized that in order to effectively target the South African community, it must help the women who are oppressed socially, economically, and politically.
Ngqisha, a mother of three, is a survivor of domestic violence at the hands of her brother and her boyfriend. She is now a staunch advocate for women's rights.
With the large number of women infected with HIV, the number of orphans in South Africa has increased, and the infant mortality rate is also rising. Ngqisha spoke about the increase in teenage pregnancy and rape in South African schools and said that the government and school systems have not effectively addressed the crisis.
"There are education programs in the schools but they are too religious," she said. "Most students are saying the policy should be reviewed because the classes are not talking about the realities the students are living in."
David Bryden, Communications Director at Global AIDS Alliance, suggested calling or writing New Hampshire Congressmen and telling them to increase U.S. funding on global HIV/AIDS programs, explaining that when Congressmen are personally touched by an issue, they are more willing to do something about it.
Now that the United States is reviewing its policy on HIV/AIDS funding, Bryden said it is important to make sure the policy is satisfactory. Currently, he said, one third of the U.S. HIV-prevention funding goes only to programs that promote "abstinence until marriage."
Additionally, attending college in New Hampshire places Dartmouth students in a privileged position to ask presidential candidates firsthand what they plan to do about the AIDS crisis.
"When debates take place here, it's your job to say 'HIV/AIDS, globally and here in the U.S., belongs in the discussion,'" Bryden said. "We expect presidential candidates to have a stand on this issue."
The lunch conversation with Ngqisha was sponsored by the Dartmouth Coalition for Global Health and FACE AIDS.
