From the latest issue of Marie Claire:

When Alicia Keys encountered the AIDS epidemic in Africa, she felt angry and helpless (millions die there each year) Today, she’s urging you to join her in a new program that lets you send money directly to those who need it most. Read on to see how. (as told to David Kirby)

I am the same age as the AIDS epidemic. I was born in 1981, around the time the first cases of AIDS were diagnosed. As a kid growing up in Manhattan, i didn’t know anything about the disease, but my Mother had a friend who came around to visit in the evenings. He always seemed healthy and strong, but over time, he grew weaker and weaker. Eventually, he stopped coming at all. I was 7 0r 8, and when i asked my Mother what had happened to him, she was vague and just told me he had passed away. I realized that this was my first encounter with AIDS. As i got older and embarked on my singing career, i became involved in AIDS awareness and prevention. I’ve always been very open about sex, though i can understand how confusing it can be. The way i see it, just don’t make it a topic that people get giggly about. So i did a public service announcement for VH1 about safe sex. But i knew i could do more. Then i met Leigh Blake, a Woman who has dedicated the last 12 years of her life to fighting AIDS. In 2001, Leigh started artists against AIDS with Bono of U2. They gathered a group of musicians together to record Marvin Gaye’s song “What’s going on” to raise money for AIDS in Africa, and they asked me to participate. Through Leigh, i learned that Africa’s AIDS epidemic is the most important crisis the world has ever faced: 2.3 million people dead in 2003 alone, nearly 27 million infected, 11 million children orphaned. Can you picture 11 million American children orphaned? In late 2002, i was in Eurpoe on my first concert tour. MTV was planning a televised concert in Cape Town, South Africa, on December 1, World AIDS day, to raise awareness about the disease. They asked me to go. I knew it would be amazing to do something that important to combat this devastating problem. So my manager, my band, and i flew directly there. I’d never been to Africa before, and in many ways, i felt like i was coming home. Africa is the origin of life. In Cape Town, our group visited an AIDS clinic on a dusty road in a poor neighborhood. I met 14 year old orphans who were taking care of brothers and sisters 7 or 8. These Children had watched their parents die of AIDS, and now they were the heads of households, taking care of their families with very little money and very little experience. These orphaned kids talked to me about losing family members or contracting the virus themselves. They told me how scary it was, how people stayed away from them when all they wanted was to be loved. Yet their eyes still shone brightly. I felt the heart and soul of South Africa: how beautiful it is, how strong these kids are, how much life they have inside. At the concert that night, i spoke about the clinic and the people i’d met. Hundreds of thousands of people filled the stadium-blacks, whites, and everyone in between. Miriam Makeba, the anti-apartheid hero called Mama Africa, sang “We shall overcome” with me. It was one of the most unbelievable experiences of my life. After the concert, i flew with Leigh to a remote airstrip in Zululand, a beautiful rural region outside Durban. The trip gave us a chance to talk for the first time about her vision for saving lives in Africa. Only 1 percent of all Africans can afford AIDS medications, she said. She wanted to start a foundation that would get Americans to sponsor Africans by paying for their AIDS medications. The foundation would raise money for the clinics in Africa so that they could buy the most effective and cheapest anti-retroviral medicines for their patients. Leigh planned to call her new group “keep a child alive.”

She told me how simple-and cheap-it is to save a life: only one dollar a day! These drugs can prolong life in people with AIDS and return them from sickness to health. In the U.S., these medicines were first discovered in 1996, and because they are now affordable and accessible to many Americans, what was once considered a death sentence is now managed as a chronic disease. But for most Africans, who live on a fraction of the money that Americans earn, these drugs are completely unaffordable. I thought Leigh’s idea was awesome. The next day, we flew to Johannesburg to visit a clinic at Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital. Most of the Mothers there had AIDS, and many of their children did, too. There was so much life in front of me, and so much of it was threatened. These smiling Moms and their beautiful children were so warm and welcoming. They sat on the floor singing my song “Fallin.” I could see the hope in their eyes. They were looking at me as if to ask, “have you come with the answer?” I didn’t have the answer for them, but i desperately wanted to.

I have probably never felt more helpless.

We asked one Woman, a Mother, “If we could give you anything, what would it be?” “We just need medicine,” she said sadly. “We don’t have it, and nobody can get it to us.” This made me angry and very sad. There are drugs available to save the lives of these Mothers and babies, but nobody was doing anything to get them the medicine they needed. Yet. Seeing firsthand what’s happening in Africa has changed my life. AIDS is an emergency that needs to be addressed now. I’ve learned that it’s not hopeless. It is solvable. We have the medications. The Africans need them. We may live in different Countries, but we all feel the same things. We hurt, and we cry. We’re confused, and we’re scared. We’re happy. When i was in Africa, i felt like i was watching my brothers and sisters, people i’ve known my whole life, being forgotten. I started working with Leigh’s foundation by sponsoring two kids in a clinic in Mombasa, Kenya. I haven’t been there yet, but i plan to go soon. I cannot wait to meet these children i am sponsoring: Husna, 4, lost both Parents a few years ago and is now being raised by her Grandparents. Her Grandfather carries her 3 miles to the clinic and back. And 11 year old Wesley is just full of love-now that his medication has made him healthy enough to play with his friends, i hear he has become a great soccer player. I also sponsor two Mothers, Anne and Veronica. Leigh gives me frequent updates on each of them. Before keep a child alive came to the clinic, no one there had access to treatment. I’ve seen pictures of the four people i’m sponsoring-before and after treatment-and at first, they looked emaciated and beaten down, like my Mother’s friend before he died. Today, they are happy and healthy and living positive, hopeful lives. Leigh tells me how much they love me, and how they thank God that somebody cared enough to save their lives. It blows me away, because it was so easy to do something so incredibly important. Now i’m trying to involve as many people as possible in combating this pandemic. I’ve written to celebrities like Halle Berry and Cher, who is looking to sponsor 5 Mother-and-child combinations (10 Africans in total) through keep a child alive. In May 2003, i attended a congressional briefing for the global AIDS bill that called for $3 billion dollars to go towards AIDS and other programs worldwide. In speaking from the heart about the need to help, I-one young Woman-gave a voice to millions of people. Happily, the bill has since passed, and $2.4 billion has been approved for AIDS and other programs. I felt so empowered. I didn’t feel helpless at all.”

What you can do:

Only 1 percent of the people who desperately need antiretroviral drugs can afford them. According to keep a child alive, if a mere 8,000 people contributed a dollar a day, nobody would die.(470,000 children die in Africa each year, and 8,000 people die worldwide every day, simply because they cannot get the HIV/AIDS medicine they need.) 97% of the money donated to keep a child alive is used to purchase medicine and fund clinics serving those with HIV/AIDS (the other 3 percent goes to administrative costs). For details on how to sponsor a child for $30 a month, to make a one-time donation, or to send a letter to Congress to ask that the pending bill, Assistance for Orphans and Vulnerable children in Developing Countries Act of 2004, be passed, log on to www.keepachildalive.org

Thx 2 Danniel Hernandez