Stephen Lewis

I learned later, just as a footnote, that the World Assembly of Youth was a CIA front.

The pandemic of AIDS is a gender-based disease.

It gives one hope, this great strength of Africa.

Men haven't changed their behaviour, so women somehow have to be strengthened to be able to ward off the men.

I'm in a great rage now, as I understand how many lives we have lost.

I'm still at the end of my rope because I find myself not handling things well when I travel.

I think when you've travelled around a lot in Africa, you understand something that many people here don't recognize: the extraordinary power that is Africa at village level - at community level.

Young women, adolescent girls, are more subject to infection, sometimes at a rate of six times that of boys. That tells you a lot about the vulnerability of women.

Unless there is recognition that women are most vulnerable... and you do something about social and cultural equality for women, you're never going to defeat this pandemic.

All I know is that every time I go to Africa, I am shaken to my core.

I was working for the Socialist International, after I left university in 1959, as a researcher.