Stephen Lewis has come a long way from his days as a U of T student back in the 1960s. The former United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa gave a sold-out lecture, Africa: Our Responsibility in the 21st Century, at Hart House Monday night. The talk, also featuring American Jewish World Service president Ruth Messinger, was presented by presented by Hillel of Greater Toronto.

“This is an issue that has really been brought to the forefront,” said Devora Schwartz Waxman, director of social justice at HGT. As the event was Stephen Lewis’ third lecture at U of T, it marked a milestone for Hillel.

“We’re always hoping to raise the bar,” Waxman said.

Lewis spoke passionately, asking the audience how the world could allow calamities like the genocide in Darfur and the pandemic spread of HIV. The statistics are indeed frightening: as of 2005, HIV has infected some 70 million people worldwide, of whom 24.5 million are in sub-Saharan Africa. From that number, 59 per cent are women.

Lewis said that gender equality continues to be the greatest problem facing the continent, with male sexual entitlement a common mindset and spousal rape occurring in an astronomical 71 per cent of couples.

If the forecast seems grim, it does come with some small hope. With new technologies such as crop rotation and drip irrigation brought to parts of Uganda by the American Jewish World Service, said Messinger, women of that country can finally grow enough food to sustain their communities. Women formerly drove to Dakar six hours away to work, she said, “as maids if they were lucky, or as prostitutes if they were unlucky.” Messinger believed the greatest chance for success was working at a grassroots level, within communities. And Hillel student Rebecca Schwebel, who volunteered in Uganda this past summer, agreed.

“We’re not like some great white saviour swooping in,” she said. “We’re helping them help themselves.”

The problems ravaging the continent are indeed great, and will take time to eradicate. Corruption and poor governing, as well as a lack of international funding, have contributed to the proliferation of the disease in the last 25 years.

In his closing, Stephen Lewis implored students join the fight against HIV/AIDS, through both volunteer work and donations. Though it’s a difficult fight, said Lewis, “It’s a fight worth making.”