Feature: Alicia Keys

Not everyone is swayed by celebrities putting their name to charity work, but you can't knock 'em for trying. Kieran Yates caught up with Alicia Keys [1] on her work with the Keep A Child Alive [2] project...

Why is the 'Keep a Child Alive' project important to you?
"When I came to South Africa I saw with my own two eyes the spectrum of Aids pandemic and it really changed my whole perspective. I remember this one particular woman came up to me and she looked at me as if I had all the answers. I felt overwhelmed I said what do you need? She said "medicine, we can't get the medicine". And that moment right there was what really opened my eyes, the way that they looked at me, the way that their eyes implored me, to do something, as if I could change the whole situation, and at that moment I didn't know if I could you know, didn't quite think that I could, but I knew that I had to do something. It really propelled me to get involved, and made me want to use my voice, say something, be their voice.

What made you start it up?
"Well I was totally moved when I went to South Africa and saw the social devastation there caused by AIDS.  It seemed like a whole generation was being wiped out.  And I couldn't come back to the US and do nothing. I had to do something! I have now been to not only South Africa but Uganda and Kenya, and I cannot wait to go to Mali, Rwanda and India too."

Tell us a bit about it...
"Keep a child Alive [2] (KCA) provides the medicine known as ARV's to children and families to keep them alive. It's crazy because here in the west, we're able to access this medicine, and it's turned AIDS into a treatable disease that you could live with, but millions and millions of Africans die unnecessarily, so that's what we do, we provide the medicine and we also help to care for some of the countless orphans' that AIDS has created. AIDS has also created an economic and spiritual devastation in Africa, but it doesn't have to be like that, if we could all just share our wealth. I know that not everybody can go to Africa, so I thought I'm gonna bring Africa to you. We are currently providing funding to 14 clinical and orphan care sites in countries such as Kenya, Mali, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe; with past funding of additional projects in Ethiopia, Kenya and South Africa and recently we have expanded our work to India."

How important do you think it is to raise awareness about HIV/ AIDS?
"HIV is the same age as me. It has been around since I was born. My generation has had a plastic sex life, that's if they practice safe sex, which many of them don't but should. It's the most important issue of our generation. Meeting the kids at Ikageng Ministries in Soweto blew my mind. They are so strong and resilient, some of the most inspirational people I have ever met. We are all part of the same human family, I truly believe that. Everything began there. The scale of this human tragedy is outrageous and its being perpetrated on some of the most amazing people you could ever know. Just like I care about what happens to my mother or anyone in my family so we should all care about each other."
 
Who else is involved?
"Leigh Blake [3]and I decided, even though it seemed impossible at the time, to create the organization to keep children and families alive and happy."

What more can be done to promote proactivity?
"A lot can be done. I mean my main objective is to bring the word of what's going on to the global public and I really am standing strongly behind that. The issue at hand is so huge, its so big but I do have faith and one thing that I see everywhere I go is that the belief in God is so strong, and it reminds me how important that is... We intend to continue our work educating the public about the issue in our way, which is very direct and very modern.  In the UK we had an amazing Black Ball and we intend to repeat it annually to raise our profile. We also have a big campaign that has been created for the UK which I  hope you will see out there shortly if you haven’t already...

Words: Kieran Yates.

Photo: Flickr user Random J