My wife recently took a week-long trip to Mexico. After the team got back, they held a party to share pictures, look at a slideshow, and talk about their trip. Spouses and families were invited, so I went along.
It so happened that one of the other team-members brought her son, Jay Kirkpatrick, and at one point, the host of the party invited Jay to talk about his own recent trip abroad.
Jay works with a group called Loving South Africa, and as he talked about what his group does, and why...I realized this would be a great story for IPR, an important story, and that I wanted to DO that story.
LSA seeks to bring people, companies, groups, and churches around Indianapolis...into direct contact with people who are fighting at the front lines of the AIDS epidemic: South Africa.
The statistics shocked me. You can find them for yourself at the WHO's website. Of the approximately 2 million deaths worldwide due to AIDS in 2008--1.4 million were in sub-Saharan Africa. 3,800 people dead, every day. One person dying every 25 seconds.
Jay said Loving South Africa's goal is to show people from central Indiana that these are not 1.4 million statistics dying; they are people. They are daughters, fathers, brothers, mothers. A whole generation of men and women is dying off in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa, and practically nobody knows.
And IF THEY HAD THE RESOURCES, NOT ALL THESE PEOPLE WOULD HAVE TO DIE. With the right care, with the right drugs, with the money, things can be changed. They are being changed, in small ways and with important results...but more work is needed. More resources.
So LSA takes small groups of leaders from central Indiana, to show them the human toll that AIDS is taking in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa, to show them the lives that are being lost...and the lives that have been saved. Two weeks of face to face confrontation with the need, and the opportunity. You visit the mass graves. You hold a dying child in your hands. LSA says, in effect, "Here's the problem. Here's what it's doing to these people. And here are the people who are fighting it. Here's their work and its effects. Here's what they are doing, and here's what they need to do it better. Now, are you interested in helping? Or will you go back home and try to forget what you have seen?"
Like I said, it sounds like an important story to me. One I bet most of us in Central Indiana haven't heard before. So I'm going on the next trip. I want to tell the story of what we, here in this part of the world, can do for those who are suffering so greatly.
Mind you, I am afraid. I dread holding a dying child. My wife and I lost a child to miscarriage this past January, and I held my dead son in my hands. I don't know if I can do that again. I am scared to see the face of AIDS, and scared to think what changes I may need to make in my own life, making room in my finances, energy, and time to help others who are suffering, while my family and I live so easily. I do not want to see the need--so I probably need to go (if that makes sense).
I'm going to work on a story this week to preview the trip, and tell the story about LSA's partners' work in Indiana and South Africa. The public radio stations in Indiana have a great relationship when it comes to sharing news and stories, and I expect both this preview and the eventual series I produce upon my return to be picked-up statewide, reaching thousands and thousands of people.
I'm also trying to raise money for the trip. It's been a tight year at IPR, and I don't want to abuse my position as General Manager by 'okaying' an expensive project that I'm personally excited about, when I've had to say 'no' to other requests within the station, rescinding memberships to organizations and chambers of commerce. Overall, the trip will cost about $3,000, including airfare. About $900 of that would purchase equipment that would default to station use upon my return, so I think that portion is legitimate for station funding. The rest of it I want to find outside of normal station revenue. If you're interested in helping bring this story to the public radio audience all around Indiana, drop me an email at mjackman@bsu.edu, or call 765-760-5888.
Please check back in for updates as I get ready for the trip this coming Spring! Thanks for reading,
Marcus
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