Edwidge Danticat Quotes

In the 1980s, when people were just beginning to talk about AIDS, there were just a few categories of those who were at high risk: homosexuals, hemophiliacs, heroin addicts, and Haitians. We were the only ones identified by nationality.

History will not judge HIV/AIDS kindly... the harshest words will be reserved for how the world responded, or rather failed to respond, to the epidemic.

You've got to watch the politics of AIDS. The politics of AIDS can work both for and against the victims of AIDS.

Because of the lack of education on AIDS, discrimination, fear, panic, and lies surrounded me.

Peter Jennings came to us and said to make a PSA, 'Let's Talk About AIDS.' But I was naive about how the virus is contracted - until Magic Johnson came out. I'd stereotyped it, thinking it was a gay disease, a white man's disease.

AIDS is no longer just a disease, it is a human rights issue.

As a Goodwill Ambassador for YouthAIDS, I've learned that the face of AIDS is increasingly young and female. By educating young people and empowering them to make the right choices we can stop the spread of HIV/AIDS

It's not fair that people ignore AIDS in Africa because it's Africa. It's not fair.

There are two things that I put my focus on. One is the fight against AIDS and finding a cure. The other is human rights.

I don't think President Bush is doing anything at all about Aids. In fact, I'm not sure he even knows how to spell Aids.

In fact, it seems to me that making strategic alliances across national borders in order to treat HIV among the world's poor is one of the last great hopes of solidarity across a widening divide.

I am excited to work with NBC News to continue to highlight stories of organizations and individuals who make their communities and our world healthier, more just and more humane.

The school I was going to said they had no guidelines for a person with AIDS.

I remember specifically, in the summer of 2002, the rate of women infected with HIV/AIDS was beginning to match the rate of men, and nobody was talking about it. It was as if it was on nobody else's radar. I had made up my mind to do something about it.

HIV AIDS is a preventable disease and should never be a source of shame!

Being in a field like healthcare, for me, as someone who is basically on a mission to make a global impact in terms of affordable access to healthcare, I am very, very concerned about the fact that there are a large number of people in this world who need to have some access to basic rights, whether it is in education or healthcare.

We are driven by the belief that every person in this world matters and access to better health is a right, not a privilege.

I was one of the first ones to participate in fundraisers for AIDS.

World Aids Day is both a day of remembrance and a day of hope.

Young women who come to Rise every weekend range from ages 15-19 years if they're in school and 19-24 years if they're out of school. These empowered young women talk about protecting themselves, their friends and communities and how they can educate people to help break the stigma surrounding AIDS.

Prince was not scared. The first time I heard someone sing about AIDS, it was Prince: 'In France, a skinny man died of a big disease with a little name.' He was not afraid of taboos.

Those of us who were lucky enough to be born in the right countries have a moral obligation to reduce poverty and ill health in the world.

Going forward, I am focused on rooting out discrimination against those living with HIV/AIDS.

I don't think there can ever be too many messages about AIDS. If you stop the education process, then people are going to think the problem is all over and done with. They'll think that it's OK to go and have sex again. Education is essential, especially among young people.

There's so much stigma around HIV/AIDS. It's a challenging issue, and the people that already have been tested and know their status find it very, very hard to disclose their status, to live with that virus, and to even seek out the kind of information they need. This experience of going to South Africa a decade ago really woke me up to the scale of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa, how it was affecting women and their children. I haven't been able to walk away from it.