BIOGRAPHY of the Year College Scholarship Challenge

In the course of history, there have been real-life Hercules who have accomplished insurmountable feats against immeasurable odds, not because of some god-empowered divinity or monumental strength but by the mere power of their boundless hearts.

This is the case of Nkosi Johnson, a physically frail African boy. Infected with AIDS at birth, he was only supposed to live a few years. Defying statistics however, he became South Africa's oldest living AIDS-infected baby at age seven. He even made it all the way to twelve, until his weak bodyu could no longer sustain his indomitable spirit. Yet during his short life span, he had done so much. In a country where 200 babies are HIV-infected daily upon birth, President Thabo Mbeki refuses to accept the fact that HIV causes AIDS, thus withholding cheap anti-retroviral drugs that could halve chances of mother-to-child transmission. Nkosi, however, managed to delve into the conscience of his nation's politicians. His simple but poignant speech at the 13th International AIDS Conference shattered ignorant misconceptions about the disease in South Africa. Tragically, it was his death this June that garnered full public outcry, finally forcing his government into administering the drugs to pregnant women, thus saving millions of lives not yet born. The unforeseeable future is forever positively changed-all because of one boy's adament refusal to allow his illness to infect another.

I often ponder how I'll make a difference in this world. Short of muscle, short of time, short of life, Nkosi Johnson clearly did.

 Written by Nhu Phan

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