Humor me for a moment… Let your mind wander back in time. Let it meander over your life’s trail to where you were 10 years ago. What was your focus then? How did you spend your time? What did you hope the future would bring? I was 15—a high school freshman in a suburb of Atlanta, using my new learner’s permit to practice driving every chance I got. My focus was on my GPA and volleyball drills, and I was fairly certain I’d be an interior designer someday. If you’re anything like me, a whole lot (maybe everything) in your life has changed over the past 10 years.

Last week I met John Robert Engole. When his mind rewinds 10 years, it revisits a time of complete dependence, total uncertainty, and very little hope. He relied on his brother for almost everything. He rarely slept, fraught with the logistical stresses of dying: who would care for his parents, his family? How would his children get school fees? What about paying for a burial? John Robert was HIV-positive and had recently taken his first CD4 test. The result? 4. Whereas a healthy adult’s CD4 count should fall between 500-1000 cells per milliliter of blood, John Robert’s indicated an astonishingly suppressed immune system and seemed to foreshadow the worst possible outcome. His frame was so frail and weak with disease that he couldn’t stand up on his own, and a deep cough shook his skeleton. These circumstances are sickeningly common in sub-Saharan Africa where AIDS still causes 1,200,000 deaths every year. But like me, John Robert also experienced a lot of change in the last 10 years. He’s once again independent and lives a productive, influential life. A school teacher in Soroti district, he’s a leader making a difference in his community and he’s supporting a healthy family. That’s because 10 years ago John Robert became the first person in the world to benefit from antiretroviral drugs supplied by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). He remembers coming to the realization that this medicine was actually working… he was no longer being dragged into death… he was going to live. And with his strong faith that radiates a beautiful sense of peace, he began to live positively. This man is one small picture of the magnanimous impact PEPFAR has had on the health and hope of communities in Uganda and around the developing world.

Our conversation was also shared with another inspiring individual. Joining us under the tall shade tree was a co-founder of my placement organization who passionately advocated for and administered those drugs on the outskirts of Kampala in 2004 and for years afterward. Dr. Margrethe Juncker’s 10-year memory is of the day she looked out the clinic window to see John Robert slowly climbing Mbuya hill, unassisted, for the first time. Her recollection was so real- I suddenly shared the profound relief and bursting gratitude she must have felt back then, at seeing her neighbors and friends getting well again, turning from death toward life.

The morning I spent with this amazing pair is a memory that, 10 years in the future, will give me pause. In that quiet shaded yard I felt the most sincere solidarity—genuine unity between an American, an Italian, and a Ugandan who have completely different histories but have all been convinced that the opportunity for health is a non-negotiable and it is for everyone. It’s not a privilege or a perk, but it is the very core of life and there’s no one in our global community with whom we don’t share that need. Even though there remain so many who lack the resources, care, and attention they need to live healthy lives, I am choosing to press into the future with hope. John Robert and Dr. Margrethe reminded me of the progress we’ve already seen in the expanding movement for health equity, and again revealed the beauty of lives touched by that growth… I, for one, can’t wait to see many more.

Leave a Reply