Unionists fight AIDS epidemic

April 12, 2005

RA delegates got a first-hand report of the distressing facts of the HIV/AIDS crisis in South Africa when a top official of the South African teachers union told them Saturday morning that one teacher there dies of AIDS every two hours.

He said that an expected 60,000 South Africans will die of AIDS by next year. Solly Molose Mabusela (pictured), deputy general secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers Union, thanked the delegates for the help NYSUT and the American Federation of Teachers has provided over the last few years in the union's AIDS in Africa Campaign.

NYSUT President Tom Hobart announced that five locals had contributed more than $4,000 to the campaign. During the RA, delegates added $21,181 to the effort and about $6,000 to support SITESABES, an independent democratic teachers union in Mexico.