Many of you may be familiar with the story of Thembisa (Thembi) Ngubane. I suspect far more people outside of South Africa know of her than people in her home country, but I trust that her courage and her struggle will prove to have had a positive impact in her community. Thembi achieved a certain level of fame globally through her "Radio Diaries," which were originally aired on National Public Radio in the U.S., then in the U.K., Canada and Australia, before airing here. Thembi was one of the more than 5 million people living with HIV in South Africa, and she was one of the few with the courage to speak out about the disease, challenging people to get their heads out of the sand and come to grips with the fact that HIV has irrevocably changed the landscape of the world and particularly of South Africa. Many people today are living relatively long, productive lives with HIV, thanks to anti-retroviral (ARV) medications, but Thembi's body succumbed to drug-resistant tuberculosis last week. She was 24. In her short life she met presidents and addressed Parliament, but in many ways her life was typical of the lives of many who have been affected by HIV. She lived in a shack in a large township in Cape Town, and she lived with the stigma of being openly "positive." The Western Cape Province (where Cape Town is) has a lower incidence of HIV overall than most of the other provinces, but in the townships, like where Thembi lived, the incidence is as high as 30%. The Western Cape has a high incidence of tuberculosis, probably due to the cold, wet winters and poor, crowded housing conditions in the townships. The combination of immuno-compromised people and Tb is not a good one. In fact, 75-80% of all people with Tb in South Africa are also HIV positive.  So, in spite of having been on ARV's, Thembi's life was cut short by a disease that is curable when caught early and treated properly. We pray that her efforts to increase HIV/AIDS awareness will have a lasting impact on her community, nation and world.