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http://colbycheung.blogspot.com/

'Survivor' Winner Uses Prize Money for AIDS Education in Africa

Ethan Zohn

In 2001, Ethan Zohn, 32, won a million dollars when he outlasted his competition on the hit reality television show, Survivor. He chose to use his money in a pretty remarkable way.

For anyone who has never seen the American TV show Survivor, the premise is this: 16 Americans who have spent their lives pampered by all the warmth, safety, and convenience the West has to offer are sent away to a remote part of the world, to compete with one another in a series of physical challenges. Alliances are built… enemies are made… and in the end, one person emerges as the winner. Five years ago in Kenya, that person was Ethan Zohn.

Zohn had spent several years as a professional soccer player in Zimbabwe, so the realities of life in Africa were not exactly unknown to him. Specifically, he knew that in Africa two million children under the age of 15 are living with HIV, and 12 million others have been made orphans by the AIDS pandemic.

"News from Zimbabwe is pretty unsettling, and when I was there, I kind of witnessed first-hand what was happening with this global AIDS pandemic," he says. "But I felt helpless. You know, truthfully, what can one, white person do to help this massive problem? So I shelved it."

That is, he tried not to think about it after he ended his professional career in Zimbabwe and returned to the United States to coach soccer at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Smiling children hold soccer ball

But then the producers of Survivor selected Zohn to spend six weeks in Kenya, and in one of the show's more memorable episodes, viewers saw him using his feet to juggle a bean-bag-or what's known as a "hackey-sack"--with some HIV positive Kenyan children.

"The smiles on their faces were amazing. I think I made their day," Zohn told viewers of the show. "And then as we were leaving, I threw it to one of the little ones, you know, I gave him the hackey-sack, and he's like, 'Oh, thank you, thank you.'"

It was a moment that left an impression on Ethan Zohn. So after he won his million dollars, he sent his mother on a vacation… bought a car for each of his two brothers… and then used the rest of his money to start a non-profit organization called Grassroot Soccer. The group mobilizes the celebrity power of soccer players in Africa to teach children there about HIV… what it is, how it can be avoided, and perhaps most importantly, how children who have been born with the virus should be treated by their peers.

The group also uses sports to raise awareness among American children about the AIDS crisis in Africa. Ethan Zohn says staggering statistics, like the fact that 25 million Africans are infected with HIV, don't always work. "But when you put real names and faces to what the disease is, it's that much more powerful. And that's my job. That's why I'm in the schools, showing kids that if you're a soccer team in Botswana, there's a 90 percent chance that at your ten year reunion, there will be two of you left. And that makes sense to them, and they want to help."

So far, Grassroot Soccer's American campaign has reached out to more than 70,000 children and gotten them involved in educational and fundraising events that are organized around the theme of sports. Ethan Zohn says athletics are a very effective way to get the point across that the world is a community and that what happens in Africa matters in the United States.

"Soccer, and sports, is like a universal language. I can put a soccer ball down anywhere in the world, and I instantly have 25 friends," he says with a smile. "Sports has the power to… break down cultural stereotypes and grant you instant access to a community, any community around the world. And that model is a good model, you know, sports for change, sports for life."

Ethan Zohn

Celebrity also gives a person instant access to a community, and that is something Ethan Zohn is enjoying now. But he knows it will not be like this forever, and he says that is why he wanted to use his money to create something more permanent.

"I have my 15 minutes of fame, and I want to maximize it," Zohn says.  "It's got an expiration date. I'm the 'flavor of the month.' I'm still trying to stretch it out, but when all this dies down, we've created a program, an organization, that has legs."

Grassroot Soccer recently joined forces with the U.S. Agency for International Development to launch what is being called a "Sports for Life" program. They have conducted HIV information seminars at more than 250 schools throughout Ethiopia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, and they expect to teach more than a million African children about HIV and AIDS over the next three years.

Hollow stardom

So where were the city¡¦s so-called pop stars and celebrities on Sunday? They certainly weren¡¦t at the June 4 candlelight vigil, probably the most significant civic event on Hong Kong¡¦s calendar.

Celebrity endorsements are a powerful way to raise support for important causes and, in so doing, help to force change. All over the world, celebrities have the courage to offer their star status to important political issues. Expect in Hong Kong.

Why is that? Are they all busy, as Canto-pop singer Joey Yung suggested recently in ¡§Don¡¦t call me diva¡¨(April 23)? Her claim that playing 30 concerts in seven years constitutes hard work is ludicrous and insulting to people who do work hard. Or is it, as Yung also made clear, that Hong Kong¡¦s pop stars are slavishly following orders from their record companies and staying away from politics so as not to offend their labels¡¦ mainland investors?

Whatever the reason, their absence is sickening and reveals the hollowness of the entertainment industry here. Hong Kong should be ashamed of these so-called talents for not having the courage to stand up and be counted on this important issue facing their nation.

Millions spent  "bribing" Aids workers

Wealthy NGOs make it hard to get staff to attend training without paying them

Aid agencies are doling out millions of dollars on ¡§allowance¡¨ fees and financial incentives for people in African countries hit hard by the Aids epidemic to attend meetings and seminars to learn how to prevent it.

Although widely practised, the custom is rarely talked about.

Donors would likely be shocked if they knew their dollars were being used to lure the very people who should be most interested in promoting development and battling Aids.

In Malawi, one of the world¡¦s 10 poorest countries, non-governmental organizations have created a monster.

¡§If you try to organize an event without it, you will not see anyone,¡¨ said Enock Phiri, who has worked with World Vision and Population Services International.

¡§The ones to be trained are the people we¡¦re having problems with,¡¨ added Joned Laviwa, director of Churches in Action for Relief and Development.

¡§The international NGOs all have money. They came here and spoiled the people and now we have problems. An NGO like this one, we don¡¦t have money to dish out to everyone.¡¨

It is difficult to get a sense of exactly how much money is being spent as almost no one will talk openly about issuing incentives. But it seems the going rate in Malawi is 1,500 kwachas($87).

More than 75 per cent of Malawi¡¦s population lives on less than US$2 a day.

Lyford Gideon, a financial officer with Malawi Network of Aids Services Organizations (Manaso), said the allowances were not meant to entice or reward participants; they were simply good hospitality.

A recent training session hosted by Manaso saw 20 per cent of the overall event budget go to incentives amounting to nearly US$500 for a three-day event involving 25 participants.

Multiply that by the thousands of HIV seminars or Aids conference across the continent, and the figure is staggering.

The practice started innocently enough. Recognizing that they were working with a population that struggles to survive, some NGOs began offering reimbursements for items such as transport, accommodation and food.

Some blame Unicef, other Oxfam. But no one can remember who first had offered envelops of cash in exchange for attendance. The point, they said, is that now everyone does it.

¡§People say, ¡¥if you don¡¦t give us pocket money, sorry, we¡¦re not interested¡¦,¡¨ Mr Laviwa said.

The practice is certainly not limited to Malawi ¡V in Uganda it is called ¡§motivation¡¨ ¡V nor is it confined to those in the development sector. In Ghana, journalists receive a  little packet of cash at the end of news conferences, referred to as soli, and ostensibly meant to cover travel expenses.

Most infuriating, said Seodi White, national co-ordinator of the Women and Law in Southern Africa Research Trust, were government officials and civil servants.

Although they are paid by the government to attend meetings that will help develop policy, many turn their nose up at seminars that do not pay a little extra, she says.

¡§If you want a government person, you have to pay,¡¨ Mr Laviwa said, with a rueful shake of his head. Government meetings usually close with an envelope containing a ¡§sitting fee¡¨, Mr White said.

The result is that some HIV workers use training sessions as a lucrative source of income, floating from one workshop to another, shopping around for conferences where participants stand the greatest chance of making a bit of cash.

Attempts to end the practice have had mixed results. For Rose Kumwenda, of the Malawi Business Coalition to combat HIV/Aids, the issue is a simple: participants in her training sessions pay the coalition, not the other way around. ¡§ I¡¦m  giving expertise and materials. What are you giving? Why should I pay you?¡¨ Dr Kumwenda said.

Mr Phiri said there were dire consequences to these practices.

¡§You are killing development,¡¨ he said. ¡§It was not Malawians who brought this, it was agencies from outside and now our people are hooked on it.¡¨

The real sex traffic

''An estimated half million women are trafficked annually for the purpose of sexual slavery. They are"exported" to over 50 countries including Britain, Italy,Japan, Germany, Israel, Turkey, China, Kosovo,Canada and the United States. Misunderstood and widely tolerated, sex trafficking has become a multi-billion dollar underground industry.

According to the International Herald Tribune, humantrafficking is the fastest growing form of organized crime in Eastern Europe. Kidnapped and/or lured by those who prey on their dreams, their poverty, and their naivety, Eastern European women are trafficked to foreign lands -- often with falsified visas --where they become modern day sex slaves. Upon arrival,they are sold to pimps, drugged, terrorized, caged in brothels and raped repeatedly. For these women and young girls, there is no life, no liberty and no chance for a happy and meaningful future.''

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