my attempt to understand why AIDS was so pervasive.

As my year in South Africa went on, I asked a lot of questions in my attempt to understand why AIDS was so pervasive. I remember one of the first things that struck me about Dennilton was that there were more coffin shops than food markets in the town. Death was a booming business and in this town -- it is easier to buy a tombstone for a family member than to shop for nutritious and life-sustaining food.

Many of these examples reflect a system that promotes short-term, welfare-based solutions to a much bigger problem. I don't claim to have all the solutions, but I do know that if girls and boys received quality education and knew that there would be opportunities for decent jobs in their adult futures; and if women felt empowered to stand up to men; and if there were more ways for people to access nutritious food and be economically self-sufficient, we would be a lot further in tackling the AIDS pandemic in a holistic and sustainable way. But no singular approach is sufficient for the magnitude of this disease. Without simultaneously working to uplift the community with empowering opportunities such as education, income-generation, and sustainable agriculture, all the billions of dollars from government and private donor funds will not be as effective as they need to be.

Decades from now, maybe and hopefully, AIDS will be an obsolete topic. But if we don't focus our efforts now on addressing root causes such as poverty and lack of education that are risk indicators for HIV/AIDS in developing countries (and in the U.S.), there will likely be another disease that will disproportionately affect the most disadvantaged populations.