Over 30 people gathered in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium Thursday, on the eve of World AIDS Day, to hear author Michael McColly talk about his struggle with HIV. The event, "AIDS and the Disempowered: A Call for Reflection and Support," featured presentations from McColly and Anthony Gatumo, brother-in-law of the Hon. Dr. Esther Keino, a member of the Kenyan parliament. Gatumo presented in Keino's place.

McColly, author of The After-Death Room: Journey Into Spiritual Activism, said although he tested HIV-positive in 1996, it was not until he attended the International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa in July 2000 that he decided to help others suffering from HIV and AIDS.

"Even though I was somewhat interested in trying to work with people who were HIV-positive like myself in Chicago, I never really go involved," McColly, who taught at Northwesten University, said. "I didn't feel like I needed to do that much more than I was doing. But in South Africa, something changed and the activists there made me really think."

After learning that he was HIV-positive, McColly said he took up yoga to cope with the problem emotionally and eventually began teaching others. McColly's doctor suggested he attend the International AIDS Conference in South Africa to teach a yoga workshop for people suffering from HIV and AIDS. During the workshop, several Africans asked McColly to share his knowledge of yoga and coping with the disease with their communities.

"[They] wanted a teacher, and I said to myself, 'You've done the same thing that drug companies and AIDS experts have been doing for years: presenting possibilities of hope and then never carrying them out,'" McColly said of his reason to travel to Africa and teach yoga.

Despite feeling that his work in Africa was unfinished, McColly said he returned to Chicago, where he continued to teach yoga, but after two months back in the United States, he decided to sell his possessions, quit his job and interview AIDS activists around the world about how HIV/AIDS-infected individuals handle disease.

"A lot of times people think activism is doing some incredible thing, but sometimes it's just incremental decisions you make that change and then they can change other people," McColly said.

Gatumo closed the event with a slideshow presentation on the factors contributing to Kenya's AIDS epidemic. He said traditional practices of the Kenyan people pose a challenge to stopping the spread of AIDS. In Western Kenya, for example, when a man dies, his brother inherits his widow. If the late-husband died from AIDS, he may have passed it onto his wife, who will then pass it on to the brother. Gatamo said Kenyan women are advocating to limit this practice.

Gatumo lamented the fact that the average life expectancy in Kenya "is a meager, dismal 47 years," which he deemed "pathetic." Despite this, Gatumo said he remains optimistic that they can eradicate AIDS.

Thursday's conference was one of the events sponsored by the Brandeis chapter of the Student Global AIDS campaign during World AIDS Week 2006, which began Nov. 27.