i am so excited to welcome everyone here. i work with an organization called global health court. we bring new talent to the field of global health. we work with amazing young leaders to bring their voices. which is why i love the aspen new voices fellowship read it ensures we have diverse thinkers raising voices to affect social change. we'll have the opportunity to listen to great stories and meet 10 great innovators who will bring them to live for us. storytelling is a powerful tool. any great storyteller is a great teacher, which is something i knew growing up. i had a mother who was a teacher and librarian. sometimes defined seem like it would never stop with a mother who was a librarian. but my mother knew the powers stories had to open the world for my sister and me.

my mother realized stories could open our world to her. every day when i got back home from school, she would say tell me a story. we would just talk. that is the way we learn to communicate in our family. now that i work in global health my world is dominated by numbers. we look at databases and spreadsheets. we read percentages. the biggest lesson i have seen in global health is that for us, numbers don't inspire people to act. stories do. if you work in global health you have to remember every single day that statistics aren't just a random number. they are action representing people and families we are trying to serve. those people stories desperately want to be heard. with that, i am excited to turn the microphone over to two people who have been enormous supporters of the aspen new voices fellowship. john and courtney. tonight many of us will never have the opportunity to visit

the congo or kenya, but by getting to listen to their stories we can bear witness to the courage they have brought to their work and clemson to the little moments they get to witness every single day. i want to turn it over to john and courtney. i want to end with a quote i read this week. we were coordinating for this week. it is the quote that is in her signature. it is perfect for tonight. "engrave this upon your heart. there isn't anyone you could love once you heard their story -- there isn't anyone you couldn't love once you heard their story." [applause] >> good evening. it is fantastic to see so many people here to share in stories that our aspen new voices are about to bring to the stage. courtney and i are partners in

life and in work. my name is john. we work to help people tell their stories. it is amazing work. the best part about it is watching people share their lives. they have the most incredible tales to tell. when cory knight will reflecting back on the year that we had previously, 2013, both of us without reservation said meeting the new voices fellows in johannesburg was the most extraordinary thing. they have very unique, humanizing stories. we are just delighted to be able to share with them today. >> here is a little bit about the structure. we wanted to keep it fast, surprising, something that would be a fresh shift from the panel experience you have been having. this is going to be unlike anything else that happened.

we're going to have a three-minute stories, and each fellow is answering the question why do you do what you do through a story. importantly, one image. you will see one image appear and here one three-minute story. what i want emphasize is that all of these fellows, and you're not actually hearing from all of them, all of them are policy experts, essentially. they could stand up here and do the data saying, and the policy thing, and give you an analysis. all of them are deep experts in our field. if any of you are media looking for experts, funders looking for amazing organizations, all of them have them. you're not going to hear that side of them. we wanted to bring that story omen. i just want to say that clearly. there is a lot more where this

came from. you are only going to get these personal stories. i want you to be there with them. they are often sharing vulnerable things. the best thing you can do as an audience is receive that gift and return it with your warmth, attention. that means turning off your cell phones and actually being present here and receiving the gift that you are about to receive, which i feel, as john said, is one of the biggest [applause] >> thank you, courtney. salaam, shalom.

1989 after five years of going through intensive that i becameion one of the few medical interns. down and hang my stethoscope around my neck like most senior doctors do, i was so proud of myself. it seems as if my addition to the pool of medical doctors would change the landscape of health and disease. [laughter] and, uh, when i was first assigned as an intern to the thecological work, i made

first round with the senior gynecologist and the residents and we went to the room labeled abortions. as we entered the room, i saw and of beds on each side there was a girl fighting for her life on each side. undergonet had through backstreet abortions and arriving at the hospital losing so much blood and having serious infections. the fragile bodies of these s withlying on the bed' iv's tied to their arms and oxygen masks and each one gasping and fighting for their life and parents and relatives in the back practically crying

and chanting prayers. 's -- this tragic situation changed me deeply at my core. . for the first time in my life, i felt guilty. i felt guilty because of the shameful life i have enjoyed and i was oblivious to the untold my community, my peers were undergoing. and i felt angry at the same time because these were the preventable situations. thatse i came to realize what is driving this underlying injustice and vulnerabilities that these women have to go through in their lives. was such aborn, it

joyful occasion in my family. birth wasny girls, the beginning of discrimination --ause earls are considered because girls are unfairly discriminated against. when i was six years of age, i was already in grade one having lots of fun and playing high jump with my friends while girls in the rural communities were burdened with taking care of other siblings. 15, i was already deep into my studies and in high school while girls, many girls in my own community are forced to drop out of school and to get married to a man they have never seen before.

these girls have to travel several kilometers barefoot to fetch firewood and collect water for their household and they work from dawn to dusk. was 23 years old, i was already an intern and looking for work to embrace the good life while girls, as i told at the end ofdy their life journey. die and the loss of so much talent and good will. husband andarry my went to marry him. i chose when to get pregnant and decided the number of children i wanted to have.

ofhose and decided the type contraception i wanted to use. believe thaty these choices, these life critical decisions, should be made available to all girls and women regardless of where they live. work in women's [inaudible] and i'm committed to represent the voices of girls in the endemic logical ward and committed to do this -- in the gynecological ward until quality services are available to each girl and to each woman and the rights are protected and fulfilled. i thank you. [applause]

>> wow, thank you so much. fellow is a research associate with the university of michigan's cool a public health. you can see him wearing michigan apparel every single minute of the day. [laughter] it's closer to his ankles. he is sporting michigan socks. most of the times, it is more at eye level. [laughter] says ig of eye level, ut blink three times whenever i feel a sense of danger and i strongly believe it keeps me and my family safe. ut - [applause]

>> i remember this as if it was just yesterday -- i had walked about a mile to fetch drinking and i was asked what i was going to be when i grew up. without thinking, i said it was going to be a medical doctor. 10 years of age from a poor neighborhood but that dream was real to me because my dad had taught me to believe in myself and i believed i could conquer anything to make the world a better place. nine years later, as it traveled 12 hours on a bus from lagos, within weeks, i became ill. literally died as soon as it became real. crushing headaches, burning fevers but yet i went to class.

at any cost, i wanted to be a medical -- in medical school. but i died. i lapsed into a coma and i remained unresponsive for two weeks. when i came back to life, i had lost my hearing to complications of meningitis. meningitis is common in northern nigeria. northern nigeria lies in a climate zone that extends from the shores of eastal to the hills in the running across the northern aspect of west africa. in this region every year, thousands of young adults and students get ill with meningitis. 10% of them die no matter what you do. i was one of the few that survived. for that age i was lucky.

i have never been to the north of my country but when i traveled between lagos and cal abal, it was a time of unusual heat and the climate had changed. was --red if lima change if climate change was what i got built. now i dream, i dream again. i dream of things to stop this from happening. because i returned to medical school, i became a physician and i am now a researcher in public health. reality still goes on. this year, as we speak, nigeria is battling the worst outbreak of meningitis in recent years. this year alone, they have 17,000 cases with nearly 1000 deaths.

like i said, i dream. globalork at the intersection of environmental health and infectious diseases because i wondered what the connection was between climate change and human health. my work is now very fulfilling. when tappinge day our resources does not pose in a danger to human health. i dream of a day when everyone has access to universal primary health care. in my country, poverty, lack of education, and extremism by groups that are around have impeded good health care. but i still dream. and i know that as we work together, the stream will come true, thank you. [applause]

all right, next up, we have the executive director of psa- haiti. she says i like to sing in the shower but make up songs with the statistics i have to remember before making a presentation or speech. thankfully, she was just belting out whatever song she wanted for this because there are no statistics involved. [applause] i always knew i wanted to change the world. i knew i wanted to change haiti, my country and i wanted to have an impact on haiti and here i was doing it every single day in and out. i was working with youth. in hivorking with women prevention and family planning. i was going all over around the country talking to them and reaching them and providing

services and activities. i would actually change their lives and have an impact and help them change their behaviors. the more i started working, the more i had responsibility. i started to become frustrated because with responsibilities, i started to understand the bureaucracy around their work. i started to understand the donors and their priorities that did not always meet the priorities of the people. i started to see programs that had a huge impact on the population and these programs closing and not being able to continue because of lack of funding. worst of all, i started to see my people, the ones we wanted to help, sitting around and waiting s and the international community to help them. i was mad. my optimism was diminishing. i was actually beginning to ask myself -- is this the life i want to have?

do i want to continue doing this work? is it worth it? on january 12, 2010, the unbelievable happened in my country -- i was at home with my husband and children on the ground started to shake beneath us. we had no idea what was going on. we were not prepared for this. we had not talked about that. i was scared. it was unbelievable. the four of us were fine but what about my friends? what about my family? what about my city? what was going on? at that time, all we could hear were the screams. all we could see was the smoke coming from the city. i felt powerless. here i was wanting to change my country and i could not do anything. my government was on the floor. i thought i was shaken to my core. the next morning at sunrise, we woke up to go see what was going on and find my family and see the city3.

as i drove, i was speechless. there were no words to describe what i was seeing. the city was destroyed. there was so much fear, so much pain, so much suffering. we had no idea how we would stand up rise and be able to continue as a country. then in the middle of all of this, i saw something unbelievable, something unexpected. i started to see courage in people's eyes. rubble to try up to find a stranger who was stranded. i saw a baker openoffice door to give bread to people who were there all night long. i started to see health professionals leave their families and personal problems to be there to help others. i saw haitians wanting to be there for each other and being a solution instead of having to wait for the international community orngo's to do the

work. i saw that light in their eyes. i saw that clemson the possibility that together we could come together as one to be able to help each other. in the middle of the chaos, i was asked if i wanted to take my children and celfin just leave the chaos and leave the country and leave the disaster because there was no way this could get better. there was no way that haiti could stand up again. my answer was no. it was no because i saw the light in their eyes, the light that showed me that we as a people can come together and make this country better. thank you. . [applause] >> thank you. speaker fellow and next

marysando who is a health specialist with unicef and if you're impressed by that, you will be more impressed to know that she loves to sank and she can do -- she loves to sing and she can do a mean imitation of celine dion. [applause] thank you. two of my happiest days in my life were in 2009 and 2010 when i gave birth to my two children at a consultancy hospital in dar salam. as much as i felt the joy and the dignity of having survived to safe deliveries, i could not forget that five years earlier, i was not the woman on the stretcher but the woman in a white coat trying to save the

life of a woman on a stretcher. but i failed. we all failed. anna was brought into the labor room while i was working as an intern in the hospital. she was in a very weak state. her eyes were barely open, she was very pale. her gown was stained with blood. my team and i quickly gathered around her, taking her vitals and blood for we knew she needed emergency blood transfusion. in the span of like 30 minutes, anna began having difficulty breathing. we did everything we could to save her but all our efforts were in vain. recall looking at anna lying in a pool of love and i felt very devastated.

from us not being able to say for. she was only 26 years old and even though i did not know her, i knew she must have had a whole life ahead of her. how could she have just died like that? courager on, i gathered and got out of the labor room to meet her husband. i still recall the very painful moment of having had to inform him of the unfortunate passing of his wife of just one year. it was so difficult because their baby girl died just a few hours earlier in childbirth. gathered thei medical records to certify anna's death, i realized she was anemic from the time she was pregnant in the beginning to the end. in her anemia, it made it

difficult for her to survive following the severe bleeding she suffered after the birth of her child. efforts,espite all our among many one tanzanian women that suffer due to the severe bleeding after birth that most succumb. and so many women after that die because of maternal complications was and continues to be very heartbreaking. women die each day in my country because of maternal complications. that more than 90% of these deaths can be prevented using very simple intervention such as ensuring women attend the clinic early and that any pregnancy danger

signs are timely and identify and manage. but also using simple medication such as injecting women immediately after delivery to prevent them from the possibility of bleeding like anna's suffering but also using medications like magnesium sulfate that could prevent and manage women who make a complications following high blood pressure induced by the pregnancy, controlling infections after birth, and also improving emergency obstetric care. we know these interventions work and they have been proven to work. as a doctor and a mother myself, i chose to make the difference because it was the life of all these women and the death of one that inspired me to do my work. today, anna would have been 10 years older enter dr. would have

been 10 years older. i do my work for them. thank you. [applause] >> that one really hits me and i gave birth seven months ago and i was severely anemic throughout my pregnancy so it feels so recent, so relevant. your work is so important. next up, we have a bit of a shift. doctor but nota like the other doctors you've just heard. he is the cofounder of biosensor technologies. he is a fountain of ideas and came up to me a couple of minutes before we started and said i've got an idea -- i thought this had to do with his presentation and it's not good to change at the last minute. he was thinking we should build an app to track coral reefs.

he's just constantly having ideas. you are so lucky to hear from this absolutely energetic and infectious human being. his interesting fact is that he was named after character in a dostoevsky novel and he's glad that nobody in primary school was into russian literature. [laughter] here is mishkin. [applause] on one of those guys who love technology. the latest gadget, i can't help myself, how it looks and how it works. i used to treat marketing people

as an incarnation of evil. that was my picture. in inventions, big ideas -- 2006, i was really happy to get a chance to work for niokia in india. it was really big in india at the time. seven out of every 10 phones was a no caps on -- nokia phone. i came up with hundreds of ideas. boss whoit out to my listened patiently and he thought ok. they said myshkin, understand that the mobile phone business is not about mobile phones. he explained to me how it works. i did not quite get it as a young kid full of optimism and technology. slowly, i aim to understand but

it went home to me once. i was in a shopping mall in south delhi negotiating a contract with a distributor. well and i went out of his office and i was walking through the mall. it was a nice big mall, very posh. rounds --e different brands and i could see people getting into the shops. it was wonderful. suddenly, i started getting it. everything was in slow motion. it was like a scene from "the matrix." i could see how it works. it was not about technology. it was not about the phones on the washing machines. it was not about any of that at all. i could see parents and their kids running around and parents were shopping and consumer was happening.

i could see their eyes light up and i realized that they were not buying things in a box. they're buying and . they're buying a hope that their life would be better and different. that's what marketing had done to them. i said this is not really a bad thing. in india, this was changing the face of india. i walked out of the mall. i still love technology but something changed inside of me. what if wehinking -- could use this idea, this marketing and apply it to other stuff like medical stuff and sanitation and water and energy? what if we could do that? a few years later, i happened to be working with a team of doctors and we had a big idea, big technology idea that we could use mobile phones to take health care to places where

health care did not exist. we eventually ended up building a platform on android which could do imaging for blood strips. basically, it could diagnose complications at less than $.10 per test. calleded a company biosense. said let's getds funding and sell it. we are going to push this technology to people. let's build it together. we allowed local and to print ours -- entrepreneurs and they changed the product for us. there were a few design issues. i realized it was not about the technology or about a big save the world idea.

it was more about being a small part of the big user story. days, i get young entrepreneurs with big ideas. they come to me and say they've got a fantastic idea. say i just made $1 million to prove it. i put on my best face and i say no. that's not how it works let me show you. thanks. [applause] >> thank you. , keanu. our next fellow and speaker is an amazing person, dr. jacques nio is the cofounder of ama

global works in the proud parent of four children and is also a choral director. jacques also made a lasting mark in my heart went from literally the other side of the world, he recited almost verbatim an article that courtney and i had written focused on dignifying and design. since that time, every time we interact, jacques and i talk about the word dignity. it's with no greater pleasure than right now to get to introduce him. [applause] when we hear about the news, it is about genocide, women being raped and wars. what about this tiny island

where i'm from of 250,000 people? they are building a health care system and it's driven by forgotten and marginalized people. nine years ago, my wife, a nurse and i, could not stand by while many people were dying from preventable diseases. whileld not stand by girls who had been married just to be taken away from the family and given to men so they could be said. --fed. we could not just sit by and live a good life. we decided to go back the best andwe thought to change bring our contribution to this community was by building [inaudible]

we believe that would provide many jobs to people. we believed that a people had jobs they would able to be taking care of their families. a few years later, while exploring possibilities in building those ecologies, we established a method for the village. we just learned that two children have died. i ask why they died. who told mef women she was invited in 1960 one at my mom's wedding, told me what do you mean? no one would look at us. no one would touch us. i could not believe that in the 20th century pygmies were still marginalized and they still exist in the eyes of other people. in fact, it means believe they

are not humans. communityers of the believe pygmies are not humans. they are not seen or heard. i asked what the thought about this ecology. said we love the idea but what if you built a dispensary for us? we could be treated like other human beings. i was shocked. that it'sclear to me not what i thought was good for them, is what they believe is good for them, they made it clear. i spoke to the communities we made clear that they were the only people who can build their infrastructure. although they did not have money, we decided that they had to use whatever they had. we built the first clinic.

those whorst time, consider themselves humans and nonhuman worked together to build the first clinic. a few years later, after we succeeded, with discreet -- we reduced the death rate to zero. we expanded the clinic and i that if wedesign build in the community, a beautiful building that is part of the community that gives them hope and they believe in themselves. but because of powerful land owner planted sugarcane and some of us know that sugarcane plantations can be a prime area for mosquitoes that breed malaria. hospitald leave the

suffering from malaria. we tried to shut down the clinic until we solve the problem. then one morning, i was waking up by a group of native pygmies who said, we just finished the job in the clinic is safe. not seen, they are not heard, they cannot be arrested because they do not exist. these powerless people who have they broughtown, this beautiful idea of building a clinic and they're the ones that save the clinic. i'm happy to say that in august, we will open a 50 bed hospital with solar power, running water, air-conditioning on a one kilometer radius. [applause] determination,

thaturage, this belief they deserve being part of the community that wakes me up every morning to go with them and that's what i -- and that's why i do what i do. thank you. [applause] >> you can see why are moved by that man. speaker is a very gentle soul. i have had the pleasure of working with him on his writing over the last year and i have been repeatedly touched by how gentle and insightful he is. it also like to share really gross out medical stories with me that freaked me out of most of the time, he is very gentle. coz then he is the

clinical researcher. is that heting fact loves walking in the rain. here he is. [applause] >>so, do you know this? we humans are in a battle with life. there is the story -- recently, i was called to a medical mission in one of the oldest churches 100 miles away where there is a holy school that accommodates deacons in church scholars. the church was also home for the poor and destitute. people there seldom change clothes and they are infected by body lice. when my medical team arrived

there, we were able to recognize what was going on. many people were sick. they were along the church corridors. it was not a real epidemic. it wasn't epidemic of relapsing fever. the locals even know it. this is all the result of a-day lice infestation. we just pray on body lice. we try to kill the manually on a daily basis. we spray holy water on them but they continue killing us. creature this small having a brain size of thousands of times less could cause this much trouble? that should be a question that faces mankind. bloodsucking creature

lived with humans for a millennia. in spite of all attempts human main to get rid of them -- made to get rid of them. they went along for the ride when humans conquer the globe. . they migrate with humans when humans evolved and lost involved -- and evolved, the lice lost their wings. they change their color to adapt to their new environment. than attendfaster to outsmart humans in adapting to their host. interactionman life intertwines with the bacteria they can transmit. lice infestation is actually nothing compared with the

bacteria they can transmit. , of course, can cause itching and annoyance but the germ they carry can cause death. that was what exactly happened in the church, and epidemic oflice-borne disease. once there were multiple fever, it's not known any part of the world except in the highlands of ethiopia and in parts of sudan. migration, it is fever that lice-boprne could reemerge to the world. it could be the next emerging disease because lice are everywhere.

the world is becoming more to lice. as it warms we should beat lice harder than ever otherwise they will continue killing us. thank you. [applause] >> that man's smile and gleaming teeth juxtaposed with that has got to be one of the oddest sights you'll see today. thank you. our next fellow in speaker isola, dr. ola, she is the managing director of flying doctors nigeria. when we first met a couple of years ago, she tried convincing me that lots of doctors are also

helicopter pilots. i did not think so. as you might be able to notice when she steps on stage, she is much taller than i would ever be comfortable, she reports she loves shopping. [laughter] ola - [applause] >> thank you. one man is 70 years old. he is the ceo of a multinational company and he is also a billionaire. now meet his girlfriend. she is 22 years old. she is broke as hell. mustafabeen dating mr. for the past six months. mr. mustafa, as you may have

--ssed, is his sugar daddy is her sugar daddy. the basis of that relationship as mr. mustapha takes responsibility for givingcandice various favors and fory and -- in exchange whatever mr. mustapha wants. mr. mustapha dictates what she is getting and he dictates what he wants and candace simply obeys. the weirdest thing about the relationship is that mr. mustapha has a lot of experience in business and economics and markets and could very easily empower candace to be of as ms. person just like him. candace on aeeps sort of leash, giving her just enough to keep her happy but never enough to prevent her from

running back to him. i believe there is a similar dynamic between the west and africa. every year, there are policies and clinical protocols and best copied andalmost pasted directly in awkwardly into africa. they are often far too expensive which makes them unsustainable and inappropriate. there is very little thought given to the concept of reverse innovation. this is the ability of african entrepreneurs ourselves to develop solutions and not only solving our health care problems but health care problems across the globe. africa, weparts of transact in shops and rural

marketplaces using our mobile phones. we have mobile wallets and i can selling in the rural market in the middle of nowhere and paid her with my mobile phone. buy an aspen, i cannot lkuis vuitton handbag with mobile money which means in this small area of mobile technology, we have managed to leapfrog over the west and start using technology that has not been adapted here before. i believe that we can succeed in leapfrogging in this single area of mobile technology, and we can leapfrog in health care as well. ceo of westnder and africa's first condition is -- first indigenous air rescue service.

we rescue with teams of helicopters in our teams of doctors. our service runs cheaper and later than our western counterparts. we have had to think outside the box a lot when it into medical equipment or keeping our operating costs low. we operate merrily in nigeria so we have quite dangerous terrain sometimes to rescue people from. that africaneve entrepreneurs in the next few join the legs of general electric and medtronic and others to deliver the next generation of health care solutions and not just the recipients of aid but owners of trade. development

theynity executives -- think like this -- i have to put on my american accent -- we are not the kind of organization that does this -- that gives them fish, we teach them how to fish. -- whation to that is if i don't like fish? what if i want steak? is, sugar daddy relationships like this one are unsustainable and rarely stand the test of time. a relationship between equals a fighting chance, thank you. [applause]

>> all right, we know the kind of lady this one is. who up, we have jane otai, i have profound respect for and the kind of work she does. we were on a panel earlier. touched by they direct service work that jane does and how she always centers the people which she will do again today for you. she is a senior program advisor opago which is related to johns hopkins. she likes cooking but she cannot follow -- find the ingredients in western africa for american cooking. [applause] >> so, i am one person who hardly sleeps. i sleep very light. i can tell you what keeps me

awake. i work in nairobi. , about 60% ofity the population of nairobi and women and girls in this community have very little information about health, generally and especially family-planning. these are the women that i interact with every week and every day and i keep thinking about them even in my sleep. many of them are illiterate. how i canto thank bring across the messages of health to them. in one of these meetings, i met lady but26-year-old when you look at her, you would think she is 40 because she is worn out. your help is report and when she sneaked into one of these young mothers clubs, she came slowly

and got in with her little baby who is actually four years old when you look at the boy, you could actually think he is malnutrition and. when she came in, it hit me that many women fear about health issues and family planning on radio and television but they need to interact with other women in order to really have first-hand information about how family-planning works. for this reason, we have young meet weeklye we with these women to talk about issues of health and issues of child care and issues of family-planning and issues of marital relationships and we talk to them every week and the message slowly comes down. i found that there is a way i can communicate with them and these are my tools -- i use sticks with these women. in these meetings, we divide the

women into four groups and some groups have seven children and others have five and others have three and two and for those women who have many children, soon they run out of sticks because they are not able to provide the food, the clothing, education for their children and they soon realize that with so many children, i cannot provide everything. what are some of the coping mechanisms if you cannot provide for the education? what do you do? these are real choices for these women and many of them will say that we give the younger olderen food and the children go without food or we take the boys to school and the girls remain home because we cannot take all the children to school. they say in my family we were 10 to goen and i decided

into prostitution to be able to support our home. finally, they realize that there is a relationship between family-planning -- having many children and whether you can provide for these children using these sticks. i asked again -- what have we learned in the few weeks we have been together? cadra puts up her hand and says she wants to contribute. she says, i have had 11 children in my life. i got married when i was 13 years old and over time, i gave birth to many children. i continued giving birth because they were dying. seven of them -- seven i have put in the ground and i have buried seven of my children. i only have four children remaining and that's because i did not know about family-planning. nobody told me about it but over the weeks, i have learned about

family planning. and i have an implant. i'm also telling other women about family-planning now. i realized that this program is making an impact on the women we talked to. they are able now to relate family-planning, child survival, and provision to their families and children. that is the work i do in a keeps me awake every night, thank you. [applause] >> thank you, jane. amazing and so powerful to see jane on the open stage yesterday. our last speaker, our last fellow to present to you tonight

is an amazing person. he is the founder of the consultancy. that bears his name. he submitted that he loves apple products. all right. i think there is actually much more to this amazingly courageous person and you are about to meet him right now. [applause] when i was growing up, i wanted to be a lawyer or an actor. in 1999, when i got admission into the university of lagos to study theater arts, it was a dream come true. three months into my admission, i met ibrahim. he was everything i wanted to be

-- he was tall, handsome, intelligent, witty with a wicked sense of humor. i did her gym. such was the relationship between us that he had such an impact it influence on my life. so it was. holiday, when i went back to school, i got a call. ibrahim would like to see me. he is in the hospital. i rushed to see him. the moment i walked into the i saw my best friend. he was lying there on the bed. i could see his ribs through his skin, cancer all over his skin, the skin was dark. his eyes were big and popping out of his skull.

he was lying there and his arms were weathered and his skin wrinkled. i could not help myself, i broke down. and then, he turned around and he looked at me and he said," [inaudible] even at this particular time, he still had a sense of humor. and stretched him out his very weak hand and he held me and he said i've got aids. and the doctor said i've only got a few days to live and i would like to talk to you. eyes and right into my all my me he said, of friends, you're the only one that can get the message across to every one of our friends

about hiv and i want you to promise me that you will do this. i was young. i had no idea what he wanted me to do. in my frustration, i started looking for an answer. then i came across an organization in nigeria called alliance right working with gay men at that time in the area of hiv. i started to volunteer for them. a few months after volunteering, i was given the opportunity to become the program director. that came with the responsibility of lobbying the nigerian government to start an hiv framework that we include men who have sex with men, and drug users. this was a big challenge for me. in nigeria, a country where public health is defined by religion, it was hard. every day i tried, i hit my head against the wall.

2004, i was invited to the fourth national aids conference and was invited to give a talk. of then i told the story ibrahim. just then, the health minister stood up and he looked at us and he said," it's time for you to join us in the fight against hiv." it was very much like i was dreaming. i was not expecting it in nigeria for this to happen. a few weeks later, i got an e-mail from him inviting us to be art of the drafting committee. that for the first time change the hiv policy in nigeria. later, in0 years 2014, the president signed a

prescribed 40that years imprisonment for homosexuals in nigeria. the law prescribed 10 years imprisonment for anybody that provides services for known homosexuals. hiv prevention work in nigeria had to stop. it was not just that. positive gay men living in a jury would not have access to treatment. in my frustration, the picture ofibrahim came back to me and i realized that no matter what happens, i have to keep his because there is still so much work to be done so that there will never be another ibrahim, thank you.

[applause] >> next, "washington journal live with your phone calls in the days latest news. after that, "newsmakers." saxby chambliss of georgia will talk about u.s. debt and its impact on national security. >> coming up next on "washington journal," the beginning of week long look at president lyndon johnson's great society. robert woodson and

will join us to talk about his goal of promoting equality through the civil rights act and economic opportunities. the discussion continues later with the heritage foundation and the brennan center who will talk about the voting rights act in your time -- >> in your time we have the opportunity to move not only to the rich and powerful society, but upward to the great society. ♪ good morning. host: been fifth -- >> the, it has been 50 years. this weekend on washington journal we will examine his goal of ending journal -- ending inequality. half a century later, how are we doing? this morning in light of the developing story in ferguson, mi