Preview Feature

During this past week I talked with two people whose lives have been changed and who are now fighting the AIDS epidemic: Vusi Kweyama, and Roxanne Crosby.

Vusi was a gangster in Kwazulu Natal, but through a program called World Changers Academy, he turned his life around. Now he runs Light Providers, a group that tries to help young people in KZN understand that their lives, each one of them, have a purpose, have meaning. And that they are valuable. This is the kind of character development that's crucial to stemming the tide of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. If you're no longer living just for the moment, if you believe that your behavior is important and that you have unique, valuable gifts...then you make different decisions, with different goals. One of the things that Vusi said really stuck with me: "Someone may have skills that transfer to others; we teach skills that transform others."

Roxanne was a corporate executive, making well over $200,000 a year for Steak n Shake, but she turned her life around, too. She's working under a 20-year contract for Loving South Africa, utilizing her executive level skills and gifts...for less than a tenth of her former pay. She says she and the LSA team are focused not on getting ahead in the game of life, but getting others IN the game fighting AIDS. She says their motto is, "...and AIDS." That is, Whatever work you're doing for your fellow man, whatever volunteering, serving, giving, whathaveyou, that's great. Keep doing that. But also make yourself part of the solution to the AIDS epidemic. It's tempting to start counting the dollar- or time-cost that that might demand...but when the person on the other end of the phone has already walked away from a $200,000+ job to make a fraction of what I make now...well, it'd be hard to look at myself in the mirror.

I'm hopeful that the story will be ready for broadcast tomorrow, in its feature form (about 4 1/2 minutes) at least. I'll also work on a two short 'wraps' (stories with reporter or host reading a paragraph, then playing a sound-byte from someone else, then reporter/host reads some more--'wrapping' around the sound-byte) for sharing statewide--just in case other stations don't have room for a big, ole 5 minute feature!

Thanks for reading,
Marcus